In 1916, Saint Petersburg, Russia, Tsar Nicholas II hosts a ball at the Catherine Palace to celebrate the Romanov tricentennial. His mother, the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna, is visiting from Paris, France and gives a music box and a necklace inscribed with the words "Together in Paris" as parting gifts to her youngest granddaughter, 8-year-old Grand Duchess Anastasia. The ball is suddenly interrupted by Grigori Rasputin, a sorcerer and the former royal adviser to the Romanov family until he was exiled for treason. Seeking revenge, Rasputin sold his soul in exchange for an unholy reliquary, which he uses to place a curse on the Romanovs, sparking the Russian Revolution. During the siege of the palace, only Marie and Anastasia are able to escape with the aid of 10-year-old servant boy Dimitri, who shows them a secret passageway in Anastasia's bedroom. Rasputin confronts the two royals outside on a frozen river, only to fall through the ice and drown. The pair manage to reach a moving train, but only Marie climbs aboard while Anastasia falls, hitting her head on the platform and suffering amnesia.
Ten years later, Russia is under communist rule and Marie has publicly offered 10 million rubles for the safe return of her granddaughter.
