The film tells the story of the romantic relationship between the heir to the Russian throne, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov, and the ballerina of the Imperial Theater, Matilda Kshesinskaya, from the time the 22-year-old tsesarevich and 17-year-old dancer met in 1890 to the coronation of Nikolai and his wife Aleksandra Feodorovna in 1896.