Includes bibliographical references (pages 256-265) and index.

Before you begin -- Russia 1903 -- Beyond the palace gates: peasant turned worker -- Before the storm -- "I dreamed that I was loved" -- Beyond the palace gates: a peasant boyhood -- "What a disappointment!" -- Beyond the palace gates: lullabies for peasant babies -- "A small family circle" -- Beyond the palace gates: another family circle -- Dark clouds gathering -- The year of nightmares -- Lenin, the duma, and a mystic named Rasputin -- Beyond the palace gates: house no. 13 -- "Pig and filth" and family fun -- Beyond the palace gates: an occupation for workers' daughters -- Gathering clouds -- Three centuries of Romanovs -- Beyond the palace gates: a different kind of education for a different kind of boy -- The storm breaks -- "My God! My God! What madness!" -- In defense of mother Russia -- Beyond the palace gates: Vasily's diary -- The reign of Rasputin -- It all comes tumbling down -- Beyond the palace gates: molecule in a storm -- "Ye tyrants quake, your day is over" -- Beyond the palace gates: ye tyrants quake, your day is over -- Final days -- "Survivors of a shipwreck" -- Beyond the palace gates: the tsar's surprise party -- Into Siberia -- Beyond the palace gates: swarming the palace -- The house of special purpose -- Deadly intent -- "The world will never know what has become of them" -- Beyond the palace gates: living in communist Russia.