The young Tsarevich Nicholas of Russia finds the idea of succeeding his father an absolute nightmare and spends most of his time trying to forget the matter by amusing himself with his friends and his mistress, the prima ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska. As the reaches the age of 26, his parents decide that he must marry and the Tsarevich reluctantly agrees to the idea only on condition that he can marry the German princess Alexandra of Hesse. Despite his parents' strong disapproval of Alexandra, Nicholas proceeds to propose to her at the wedding of her brother Ernest in Coburg. Meanwhile, in another part of Russia, Nadezhda Krupskaya meets Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, a man who would later become better known as Lenin, for the very first time. (thetvdb.com)