A 14-year-old German princess evolves into the Empress of Russia.

In 1744, 14-year-old German princess Sophie Friedericke Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst is summoned to the Russian court by Empress Elizabeth, daughter of the late Peter the Great.  The childless Elizabeth has chosen her sickly, imbecilic nephew Peter III to succeed her - and arranged for young Sophie to become Peter's bride. Converting to the Russian Orthodox religion, Sophie changes her name to Catherine and marries Peter in 1745. The union is a disaster, her childish husband unable to consummate the marriage for several years. Catherine uses her time alone to educate herself, becoming an avid student of politics and the Enlightenment - preparing for the day when she will take the throne. In 1761, Empress Elizabeth dies and Peter becomes the czar - while Catherine is pregnant with the child of her lover, war hero Grigory Orloff. Peter quickly earns the enmity of the Russian military and the people, and Catherine, Orloff and Orloff's brother Alexei overthrow Peter in a bloodless coup (bloodless until the hot-headed Alexei murders Peter a few months later). Catherine is now the unchallenged Empress of Russia.