Enrico Rosatti is a former privateer who plays the violin in a Florentine tavern, trying to drink away the memory of his broken heart. It seems Rosatti has sunk so low that he is irredeemable, but Captain Palashov, the envoy of a powerful Russian prince, sees Rosatti as an opportunity for his own redemption... Palshov offers Rosatti a place at the court of Catherine the Great, provided he can pose as the violin virtuoso Count Morelli. But can Rosatti navigate the grandiose and lustful court of the Russian Empress while maintaining his new identity when old shipmates threaten to unmask him as an impostor?