During the production of War and Peace at Mosfilm in 1964, an elderly Russian noblewoman is set to appear as an extra. The film's political commissar demands her dismissal due to her aristocratic background, but director Sergei Bondarchuk is adamant that she stays.

In 1916, Captain Alexander Kolchak's ship is laying naval mines in the Baltic Sea when they are blocked by SMS Friedrich Carl of the Imperial German Navy. Kolchak leads his men in Russian Orthodox prayers for protection as they lure the German ship towards their mines and it sinks. At the naval base in the Grand Duchy of Finland, Kolchak is promoted to rear admiral and introduced to Anna Timiryova, the wife of subordinate officer and close friend Captain Sergei Timirev. Although Sergei reminds his wife, that they took vows before God, Anna is unmoved and wants nothing more than to be with the Admiral. Terrified of losing Kolchak, Sofya offers to leave for Petrograd, but Kolchak is adamant about their marriage. When Anna delivers a letter to Kolchak he informs her that they can never meet, professing his love for her

Tsar Nicholas II personally promotes Kolchak to vice admiral and commander of the Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol. After the February Revolution in 1917, Tsarist officers are disarmed and executed at the Kronstadt naval base. Sergei barely escapes with Anna. A group of enlisted men arrive aboard Kolchak's flotilla demanding all officers surrender their arms. Kolchak orders his subordinates to obey and throws his own sword into the harbour.

Kolchak is summoned by Alexander Kerensky and offers to make him Minister of Defense. Kolchak accepts on the condition they restore old Imperial Army practices. Kerensky refuses and offers him exile in the United States, ostensibly because the Allies need him as an expert to take Constantinople by naval attack. Shortly after, his wife and son are rescued from their home in Crimea and whisked away to a British ship, just before the house is attacked by Red Guards.

In 1918, Anna and Sergei are travelling on the Trans-Siberian Railway when she learns Kolchak is setting up an anti-Bolshevik army in Omsk. Sergei is dismayed when Anna announces that she is leaving him and becomes a nurse in the Russian Civil War. Kolchak learns the Red Army is advancing on Omsk, he orders an evacuation and seizes Irkutsk as the new capital of anti-communist Russia. Anna is recognized by a White officer who informs Kolchak; they meet and he vows never to leave her again, explaining he has asked Sofya for divorce. He proposes to Anna, but she insists that there is no need for marriage. Eventually, she relents and they are seen attending the Divine Liturgy together.

Meanwhile, Irkutsk is under the nominal control of French General Maurice Janin and the Czechoslovak Legion. With their defenses disintegrating, the Red Army offers a way out alive. As a result, General Janin agrees to hand over Kolchak. Kolchak and Anna are arrested by the Czechs and handed over to the Reds. Reinforcements, led by Kolchak's ally General Vladimir Kappel, eventually reach Irkutsk just in time to rescue Kolchak; however the offensive fails. Kolchak is put on trial by the Irkutsk soviet and executed with his former Prime Minister along the banks of the frozen Angara River. His last words are, "Send word to my wife in Paris that I bless our son". Their bodies are dumped into an opening in the ice, hewn up by the local Orthodox clergy for the Great Blessing of Waters on Theophany.

The story then returns to 1964 at Mosfilm. It is revealed that Anna is the noblewoman who appears as an extra in War and Peace. As she witnesses a rehearsal for one of the film's ballroom scenes, she recalls her first meeting with Kolchak, and her dreams of the formal dance she was never able to share with her beloved.