On one fateful day in 1914, the world as a whole decided that a Serbian killing an Austrian could only be remedied by Germans killing Russians, despite numerous people explaining this made no sense. For an adolescent such as Klaus Schmidt, his country of origin being at war with his country of residence is all the justification needed to fling him into the depths of a St. Petersburg prison for the foreseeable future. And, sure, why not pin a few murder charges on him while they were at it? Salvation makes its way to him two years into his sentence when a corrupt aristocrat offers to get Klaus...