Don Cossack Emelyan Pugachev says goodbye to his wife and children and goes to run. The elder Filaret blesses him to lead a rebellion under the name of Peter III of Russia. The insurgents dealt with the feudal lords cruelly. Queen Catherine the Great directs troops against the rioters. Traitors betray Emelyan, and now he is being transported across Russia in an iron cage.
Black public figure Jim Taylor is pursued by the police. He dies from a bullet in the head. In a private clinic, he is transplanted with the brain of Sheriff Maclain, who died in a car accident. While remaining black, he begins to think like a racist Maclain.
At the heart of the picture is a common legend about the last days of Emperor Alexander the First Blessed.
