Click for larger image

After witnessing the Victory Day festivities in Moscow's Red Square, American reporter Philip Sutherland attends a command performance of Swan Lake by the Bolshoi Ballet with his friend, broadcast journalist Steve Quillan.  Backstage, Philip gazes at ballerina Marya Lamarkina, whom he has tried unsuccessfully to court for two years.  To his surprise, Marya reveals that she has been learning English so she could declare her love for Philip, and expresses a desire to marry him and return to San Francisco with him.

The next day, Philip and Marya call on the U.S. Ambassador, who warns them that Marya may have trouble obtaining an exit visa.  Although they have no guarantee that they will be together beyond the remaining six months of Philip's assignment, the lovers are married in the American Embassy.

While honeymooning in the Baltic resort town of Tallin, they meet Englishman Christopher Wellington St. John Denny, who is married to Marya's friend, Svetlana Mikhailovna.  Christopher relates that he met his wife when she translated for him at a state banquet during the war, and says he plans to take her to his home in Cornwall once her exit visa comes through.  However, when Christopher is apprehended by Soviet security agents for taking photographs on the beach, he is expelled from Russia, and the pregnant Svetlana's visa application is denied.

Philip and Marya look after Svetlana, who gives birth to a son in their apartment.  Philip soon learns that he will be transferred out of the country in the wake of heightening Cold War tensions, and dedicates himself to securing Marya's visa.  At the airport, however, Marya is detained by the police after Philip has already boarded the plane, and he is forced to return to America without her.  Philip tries in vain to be reassigned to Moscow but is banned by Russian authorities.  After his sympathetic editor, John Barnes, gives him an assignment in London, Philip visits Christopher, who gives him some letters from Marya that Steve had smuggled out of the country.  Determined to rescue their wives, Philip buys a Dutch sailing boat and proposes to Christopher that they sail to Tallin, where the Bolshoi will be touring.  Christopher declines, saying that he is willing to risk his own life but not his child's.  Under the tutelage of boat man Joe Brooks, Philip devotes all his energy to learning how to be a sailor, and Joe offers to accompany him on the voyage.

On the day they are to depart, Christopher comes to the dock ready to join them, having recently learned that his son has died of a fever.  The three men set sail, stopping in Stockholm to meet with Steve, who agrees to pass messages to the women and devises a code by which he will communicate with Philip through his radio broadcasts.  They continue their voyage, and when the Tallin coastline is in sight, Philip and Christopher row out in a dinghy to meet their wives, as arranged through Steve.  Only Svetlana swims out to meet them, however, explaining that the Bolshoi added a special performance that night, and Marya is still at the theater.  Philip instructs Christopher to take Svetlana back to the boat and have Joe return in the dinghy in three hours.  Philip then swims ashore, steals a uniform from a medical corps officer and goes to the theater.

After calling Marya backstage, Philip sits in the audience and watches yearningly as his wife dances the lead role in Swan Lake.  While taking her bows, Marya faints, and Philip is brought backstage to examine her. He carries her out of the theater, but as they drive away, dancer Valentina Alexandrovna identifies the "doctor" as Philip, and the officers pursue them.  Philip speeds toward the bay and drives the car off the end of the pier. He and Marya quietly swim out to the dinghy, and embrace passionately as Joe rows them to safety.