Synopsis

Jacqueline, a Paris society hostess (Faye Dunaway) introduces a fellow American, businessman Andrew Lamont (Steven Brand) to a beautiful young Russian girl, Daria Larina (Agata Gotova), while he is on vacation in Europe. She is the kind of woman who will turn the eye of every man when she walks into a room. Andrew is fascinated by her, as Jacqueline knew he would be. He woos Daria with flowers and dinners. Eventually he wins her over and together they go to Moscow, where he meets Daria's father Raf (Rade Serbedzija), a former mafia oligarch, but now Russia's Minister of Internal Affairs. Raf lives in a magnificent mansion with his "Russian doll" blonde girlfriend (Musetta Vander), whom he is about to marry. He had kept news of the wedding from his daughter and is furious that she has found out about it and shown up with this American. He wants her to go back to Paris immediately. Daria is terribly hurt, believing that her father has no love for her. She doesn't know, and he won't tell her, that because he loves her so much he wants her as far away as possible. If she stays she will be in mortal danger and he is unable to protect her. Raf's past life has come back to haunt him. He is under pressure from a gang of dangerous hoodlums to secure the release from prison of their boss, and Raf's onetime friend and colleague, Oleg Rozhin (Steven Berkoff). Raf's worst fears are realized when Daria is kidnapped and taken to a remote hut in the forest. He goes to the prison with a signed document authorizing the release of his nemesis. The prison governor looks at him suspiciously, but Raf is his superior and the sinister Rozhin gets his freedom. Andrew traces Daria's kidnappers. He is outnumbered, but lures most of them away from the hut. He overpowers the remaining guard and escapes with Daria, riding a horse-drawn sled through the snow-covered forest, the heavily armed gangsters in hot pursuit. With Rozhin out of jail, the wedding proceeds. But Rozhin has more than freedom on his mind. He wants revenge for the years he spent locked up and for the betrayal by his one-time friend. What is supposed to be the happiest of days becomes the bloodiest of days as gunfire erupts outside the church.