Peter I promised his little daughter Elizabeth that he would marry her to Louis XV and she would become queen of France. But all plans, including agreements with the French king, collapse with the death of the great monarch: Peter I passes away without having time to appoint an heir. Thus begins the ruthless and merciless era of palace coups - a time of intrigue and struggle for power. Will the empire built by Peter and its new capital, St. Petersburg, survive? What price will Elizaveta Petrovna, the youngest daughter of the great monarch, have to pay to take her place in history? And what can women on the throne give Russia?