Part 1

This starts in December, 1916, just before the Russian Revolution, then moves to 1917's February Revolution, the family's forced move to Siberia in summer, 1917, the late-1917 Bolshevik takeover and start of the Russian Civil War and the July, 1918 mass shooting of the family. Afterwards, it revolves around Anna Anderson, who believes that she is Anastasia Romanov, daughter of Nicholas II of Russia. Anna first tells her story in the 1920s when she is an inmate in a Berlin asylum. Her story of escape from the Bolsheviks who killed the rest of her family in 1918 seems so vivid that many Russian expatriates are willing to believe her. She slowly gains more trust, but the Romanov family is very resistant to believe her tale and publicly denounces her as an impostor. The movie culminates in 1938 with Anna deciding to sue the Romanovs to force them to recognize her as Anastasia, but it never reveals if Anna really is Anastasia.

1918 in Russland: Revolutionäre erschießen die Zarenfamilie. Um 1920 in Berlin: Eine verwirrte junge Frau kommt nach einem Selbstmordversuch in eine Nervenklinik. Sie erinnert sich an vieles, was nur ein Mitglied der Zarenfamilie wissen kann. Hat Anastasia, die jüngste Tochter, das blutige Massaker überlebt?