A doctor in a modern lunatic asylum becomes fascinated with a patient who, although cured of his belief that he is the assassin of Tsar Nicholas II, seems to know more than he should about the murder. As they delve deeper into the past, both men take on roles which will surely again lead to murder. “At that time we didn't know much about the death of the Tsar family. When the nineties came, we began to get some information and I was very excited about the idea of a movie. There are some very dramatic moments in world history, and it is one of them, the moment that will always agitate the artists' souls. But we were the first who've done something of it”, says director Karen Shakhnazarov.