A Russian Police Major is enlisted by the LAPD to help solve a series of gruesome murders perpetrated against young women by a sadistic sociopathic killer on the mean streets of Hollywood.
Many years after a deadly terrorist siege in a Moscow theatre, survivor Natalya returns to the crime scene to hold a memorial evening, finally able to confront her survivor's guilt and her estranged daughter and husband.
Based on Ryunosuke Akutagawa's In a Grove, story takes place during the times of Tsar Alexander II. A lady-in-waiting tells the Emperor in his bedroom a metaphysical story about a 13th century prince who is killed in the woods under mysterious circumstances. Fairy tale characters who have witnessed the terrible death, all share their version of the events, gradually shedding light on what really happened.
