[1] The film follows Andrei Miller, a British archaeologist played by Anthony Andrews, as he gets arrested while doing a special assignment for the Shah of Iran.

He testifies to the military officer that he is totally innocent and asks him to contact the royal family.

Most of the movie is a very realistic and ugly picture of the terrible plight of prisoners in Siberia during the Stalin years.

In an ambiguous ending, word comes to the camp that the Shah of Iran and his wife are asking that he be freed.

He is released and goes back to his pleasant life, or that is just a delusion that he has while dying of cold and hunger.