From Catherine the Great up until the last Russian Empress, all of the Russian Tsarinas were, in fact, German. What brought them to Petrograd were marriages arranged in the royal courts of Europe. Once wed, the young bride was firmly in the straitjacket of the Russian monarchy. An individual personality and identity was denied, the sole purpose of her being became her role as custodian of centuries of Russian tradition and as figurehead to the Russian nation. This sweeping documentary tells dramatic stories of survival and suffering, as these women navigated their strategic marriages, their longing for true love, and the shackles of European power politics.