One Night in Winter is the heart-breaking story of two forbidden and deadly love affairs set in the corridors of Moscow’s most elite school in l945. As Russia celebrates victory over the Nazis, shots ring out in a festive Moscow: two schoolchildren in l9th century costumes, a boy and a girl, lie dead. They are the children of Soviet leaders, pupils of the city’s grandest school. Is it a murder? A suicide pact? A love triangle? A conspiracy against Stalin himself, or one of his own merciless intrigues?
Stalin orders the arrest of children aged from seven to eighteen, but this terrifying investigation, the Children’s Case, rips families apart as the children are turned against their parents it is every parent’s nightmare. Then it unveils two secret love affairs: one amongst the schoolchildren, one amongst the grownups, both potentially fatal. In an unforgettable and utterly compelling story about love, marriage, adultery and family, the characters learn that the greatest gift of childhood is the freedom to live in the present. Ultimately, in matters of the heart, it is not whom you love but who loves you. Based on a true story, this is a passionate and sweeping epic about the many faces of love.