This is the first installment of a three-part biopic of Czar Ivan Grozny, which was never completed due to producer unhappiness with Eisenstein's attempts to use forbidden experimental filming techniques and enormous cost overruns. The second part was completed but not released for a decade following Eisenstein's death and a shift in the Soviet government's attitude toward his work; the third part was only in its initial stages of filming when production was abruptly halted. In this first installment, set early in his reign, Ivan encounters betrayal from the aristocracy and even some of his closest friends as he attempts to unite the Russian people.