Russia in 1875. Michael Strogoff, the emissary of Czar Alexander II, travels from Moscow to Irkutsk in Eastern Siberia, where he is to warn the czar's brother, Grand Duke Dimitri, of the imminent arrival of Tartar hordes led by the traitor and rebel Ivan Ogareff and the Tartar prince Feofar Khan. In the course of a journey strewn with obstacles, he meets Nadia and two European journalists, Harry Blount and Alcide Jolivet.