Seventies of the 16th century. The endless Livonian War is squeezing the last juice out of the Russian state, but Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich still dreams of creating an empire “from sea to sea.” Everything changes in an instant when the enemy Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is led by the talented military leader Stefan Batory, who calculatingly exterminates the Russian army in bloody battles, and the tsar’s beloved eldest son finds himself at the center of a conspiracy against his own father. John’s life is under threat, but the main thing is the fate of the power he created, which may soon turn to ashes...