After decades of persecution by the Russian Orthodox Church, the Old Believers devise a clandestine plot to usurp Catherine the Great and install their own tsar. In the eyes of Nikolai, a covert Old Believer priest, Rolan seems the ideal replacement. Not only does Rolan subscribe to the Old Believer's version of Christianity, but he is the secret illegitimate son of the Russian empress. Matrona embodies the spirit of the people Rolan is asked to save. She is born into serfdom, and when she escapes from her master she finds prostitution to be her only means of survival. Although her...
After decades of persecution by the Russian Orthodox Church, the Old Believers devise a clandestine plot to usurp Catherine the Great and install thei...