In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Count Alexander Rostov finds that his glamorous past has put him on the wrong side of history. Not immediately executed, he is banished by the Soviet Revolutionary Tribunal to the attic of the Metropole Hotel, where he faces death if he ever sets foot outside again. As time passes and Russia's most turbulent decades pass outside the hotel, Rostov's confined circumstances open his spirit to a wider world. As he builds a new life inside the hotel, Rostov discovers the true value of friendship, family, and love.