As Europe heads ever closer to armed combat in the early 1900's, the question of Russia looms large in the minds of those making policy in the U.K. How close to success are the revolutionaries led by Lenin? How much real influence does Rasputin have over the Tsar and Tsarina? Is Russia really ready to honor its pacts with Serbia? These are questions that Sebastian Holmes is sent to determine by infiltrating the Bolsheviks as well as the Imperial Court. Working against him is the ever powerful head of Russian secret police as well as some of those in the British embassy in Russia.