In the final months of World War I, Vasily Yushkoff, a British war hero, is given a special assignment by King George V: rescue deposed Tsar Nicholas II from his prison in Siberia. Nicholas is the king's cousin, and the Bolsheviks plan to force him to sign a treaty with Germany, an act that will turn the tide of war against England. Vasily slips into the Siberian town of Tobolsk and escapes with Nicholas, the Tsarina Alexandra, and the beautiful Grand Duchess Tatiana, but the Bolshevik Yakov Yurovsky discovers the plot. During a desperate two-day dash towards White Army lines, Vasily and Tatiana fall in love, to her parent's dismay. Yurovsky captures the group, and imprisons them in the city of Ekaterinburg; Vasily is tortured. One night, as the White Army approaches, Yurovsky has the entire royal family shot, and dumped into an unmarked graved. Vasily is sent to a labor camp, where he spends most of the remainder of his life, praying that Tatiana is alive. Seventy-three years later, he returns to Ekaterinburg with a team of forensic anthropologists, seeking the royal family's final resting place. But the grave's final secret will write a new ending, not only to history, but also to Vasily's life.