While detained in one of the Soviet Gulags (prison work camps), Maria fell in love with and had a child by one of the camp guards. However, in order to save her baby, she was manipulated into a situation where she had to betray her lover. The main attraction of this film is the clear depiction it gives of the harsh conditions of life in these infamous camps.

1917, the Crimea. Fanny Kaplan is blind and out of prison. She starts an affair with her doctor, Dmitriy Ilyich Ulyanov. which ends unexpectedly when she runs into her first lover: the terrorist who she went to prison for and who is now in the Russian secret police. Soon after, she is accused of an assassination attempt on Dimitry's brother: Vladimir Ulyanov Lenin.