In June 1914, while the Romanovs are vacationing on a cruise ship off the coast of Finland, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary is assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian terrorist. Serbia and Russia share a mutual-defense agreement, so when Austria-Hungary threatens to declare war against Serbia, Russia is bound to aid Serbia. As other countries take sides based on their own treaties—Germany with Austria-Hungary, France and England with Russia—it becomes clear that an attack could lead to “a war the likes of which the world had never seen” (127).

On June 30, Empress Alexandra telegrams Rasputin and asks him to pray for peace, but when he runs to respond to her, a strange woman intercepts him and stabs him in the stomach, yelling that “‘I have killed the anti-Christ!’” (127) Eight hours later, a doctor finally arrives and performs surgery on Rasputin, and he survives. Under the care of a specialist sent by Alexandra, Rasputin spends a month and a half in the hospital, worrying all along that war will break out, Germany will defeat Russia, and he’ll lose his special status with the royals. Rasputin desperately telegrams the tsar, saying “‘war will mean the end of Russia and yourselves’” (129), but in the end Nicholas has no choice but to enter the growing conflict.