Marian MacGowan

A satirical, comedic drama, based on the occasional historical fact, about the rise of Catherine the Great. An idealistic romantic young girl, she arrives from Prussia for an arranged marriage to the mercurial Emperor Peter hoping for love and sunshine and finds instead a dangerous, depraved, backward world that she resolves to change. All she has to do is kill her husband, beat the church, baffle the military, and get the court on her side.

Mary McGarvie is a beautiful con artist who, with the help of her young daughter, fools audiences into believing she is psychic. The legendary magician Harry Houdini comes to town with a skeptic's challenge. He is going to give $10,000 to anyone who can correctly 'channel' his mother's dying words. Mary accepts the challenge. Houdini enters into a passionate affair with the charming clairvoyant even as he prepares for the most dangerous stunt of his...