1917 – Russia is at war against the Central Powers, the Tsar has abdicated, and Russia is being ‘governed’ by a shaky coalition of political interests.

In the cities starving people are queuing for food. There are strikes and protests, and soldiers are starting to mutiny and desert.

Pavel Sukhov is a prosperous merchant in Barnaul, a town in southern Siberia. He and his wife Maria, their three daughters and a young son, try to distance themselves from the political unrest gripping the nation.

But now Barnaul is about to install its first Soviet committee. Soon after, the town is engulfed in a catastrophic fire.

In Petrograd (St Petersburg), the Bolsheviks storm the Winter Palace, and inexorably, Russia slides into a devastating civil war. The Sukhovs’ world will be overturned. They will be forced to fight for their very survival.