Secrets...every family has them, but when you are the Czar of Russia, the consequences can bring down a 300 year old dynasty. Producing a male heir to the throne was mandatory for Nicholas and his beloved wife Alexandra, but only daughters were born to the couple. Finally Alexis was born in the first decade of the 20th century to fanfare, but he seemed cursed with the European royals disease of hemophilia. Unwilling to share this potentially disasterous secret, Alexandra sought her own medicine man to save her son from certain death. Her choice of counsel, unyielding poverty among the peasants, the promise of utopia by Lenin, and certain defeat in WWI, lead to the downfall and end of the last Czar and his family. The story of marital and parental love saturates the epic tale. Ideologically, the "isms" of the 20th century were born from these events. One of my favorites!