1925. José Raúl Capablanca, a famous Cuban chess player and employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, arrives in Moscow for an international chess tournament. The trip, taking place under Machado's dictatorship, casts doubt on his future in this position. The film shows Capablanca's dramatic matches with Lasker, Tartakower, and Bogolubov, his tragic love for Bolshoi Theatre ballerina Sasha Mozhaeva, and a simultaneous game in which he lost to the very young Mikhail Botvinnik.