This is a dramatic story of two young men from vastly different cultures who are brought together by world events beyond their control.

Ivan Medved, born into the wealth and pageantry of Imperial Russia, travels a path that transforms him from a pious, God-fearing member of the loyal aristocracy into a young man who questions the very foundations of his life- the existence of God and the Divine Right of his Tsar. But his love for a commoner gradually awakens him to the poverty and hopelessness of the average Russian and weakens his faith in the Tsarist system.

At the same time, Kenji Dainichi, the descendent of a long line of samurai, slowly evolves from a scholarly boy who deeply prefers the intellectual life to the warrior tradition of his forebears. Forced by that tradition into the military life, he abandons his dream of becoming a teacher of literature as he struggles with fear and self-doubt about his ability to lead.

The two meet and become friends in the years before the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, only to find themselves on opposite sides during the ruthlessly violent battle for Port Arthur. Defeating Russia brings Japan to the front ranks of military nations and sets the stage that inevitably leads to World War II. Russia's costly loss, the first by a European nation to an Asian power, stokes the fires that become the Russian Revolution barely a decade later.