The city's ice-covered rivers and canals act as broad avenues, traversed on ice-skates and sleds, with markets and winter festivals on the ice.
Social classes mix in this winter wonderland, and the courier Matvey crosses paths with the aristocrat Alisa, who is an intellectual girl from a noble family.
December 1899; Imperial Saint Petersburg's rivers and canals freeze over, transforming the capital city into a fairytale-like wonderland; the markets-on-ice allows ice skaters to partake in commerce and enjoy various attractions.
The tsarist minister Nikolai Vyazemsky's daughter Alisa Vyazemskaya chafes against the expectations, customs, and superstition of the upper class; she seeks to study the sciences and chemistry specifically, but is forced to hide her interests from her father, who, like many Russian aristocrats of that time, believes that a woman would be better off without higher education; he believes it "only produces free-thinkers and rebels".
Knyaz (translated as "Prince") Arkady Trubetskoy, the stern and ambitious Captain of the Guard, seeks her hand in marriage for the wealth inherited from her late mother.
Their leader "Alex" is impressed by Matvey's speed and agility; he is a proponent of Marx's ideas about expropriation, which the other members "Mukha", "Gengis", and "Graf" support.
Although Dmitri Mendeleev himself enthusiastically endorses Alisa's candidacy at the entrance exam, the scheme fails because the consent must be written, and Matvey cannot write.
The heist at the ball proved to be lucrative, however, Matvey's father becomes suspicious of him and the amount of money he gives, eventually rejecting it and the possibility of treatment because of the dishonest work his son committed for them.
Matvey quarrels with him; he challenges the existence of God, which his father angrily rebuffs him for, and leaves home to go live with Alex and the gang at their base: a derelict wooden frigate frozen into the ice in the Gulf of Finland.
Due to several high-profile losses at the ball, including the Grand duke's heirloom pocket watch (the theft of which Nikolai proclaims to be terrorism), the police plot a sting operation on Prince Arkady's initiative, who've long investigated the Ice Gang.
Alisa considers this performance a stupid farce and unveils Fourier's cold flame trick to the assembled nobles in French, humiliating her stepmother.
Nikolai angrily compares her to the Dekabrists and orders that her library of books be burned; Alisa's governess, the prim Englishwoman Miss Jackson, is taken aback by his outburst and resigns.
Alex incapacitates Matvey and executes his plan, demanding assurance of all his comrades' escape (including the traitor Duke) for Alisa's safety, which Arkady gives his word for.
The two cynically observe that the Prince's word proves to be in bad faith, as the assembled police opens fire on them and recaptures the four escapees.
Matvey manages to emerge from the sea and falls into a coma before fishermen take him to Anatoliyevich's hospital, who immediately attempts to treat him for hypothermia.
As New Year's Day approaches, Alisa dissociates after she learns that her father gave full consent to her marriage with Prince Arkady, who tries to win her over.
As Nikolai announces his daughter's betrothal, Arkady attempts to return with her, but he merely finds one of the train tickets; Matvey had dropped it due to a butler's intrusion.
The jubilant Mendeleev tells him that Alisa has made great strides in the study of chemistry and is set to receive an academic degree within a year, which will allow her to work in all prestigious universities in the West.
Vyazemsky asks the directorate of the university, where the Bestuzhev Courses are held, to amend the charter so that women will be able to teach there; he realizes this is the only way to have his daughter close again.
Subsequently, Alisa lectures a class of women on chemistry with Mendeleev and Nikolai in attendance: she elaborates the reaction that allows fire to be "cold to the touch".
The film ends with Alisa, Matvey, and their young son Petya, named after his late paternal grandfather, learning how to ice skate.
[15] The source of inspiration for producer Petr Anurov may have been the title of the book of the famous novel of the same name by the Dutch-American writer Mary Mapes Dodge.
While the book and the movie share a name and include silver skates and a sick father, they tell completely unrelated stories.
We have a team of amazing professionals who are incredibly dedicated to the cinema, so even the weekly night shifts with frost and blizzard were surprisingly easy, in a creative atmosphere."
Relatively unknown actors were cast in the main roles; the project was the first major film work for Fedotov and Priss, who are both from Saint Petersburg.
Vast amounts of scenery were created for the film, taken from a 10,000-square-metre (110,000 sq ft) warehouse and installed on special structures on the Great Neva by emergency response personnel.
[40] It is scheduled to be theatrically released in the Russian Federation on December 10, 2020, by the Central Partnership,[41] domestically representing the international distributor Paramount Pictures.
Anton Dolin in Meduza also noted the social subtext of the plot: "The central conflict of the Silver Skates – it seems for the first time in the domestic film mainstream – is associated with the liberation of the heroine from the bonds of patriarchy.