Marlene Dietrich stars as Sophia Frederica, a young German princess who uses her cunning and sexual prowess to seize Russia's throne from her ineffective husband, Peter (Sam Jaffe), and rule the land as Catherine the Great. Josef Von Sternberg directs this fabulously sumptuous production that stars John Lodge as Catherine's on-again, off-again lover, Count Alexei, and Louise Dresser as her scheming mother-in-law, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.