Now a major motion picture starring Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer and James McAvoy. The year is 1910 and Leo Tolstoy, the most celebrated figure in Russia, is frail with old age. Devotees jostle for his favour and the press documents his every move. Vladimir Chertkov leads the Tolstoyan movement, built around Tolstoy's values of pacifism, chastity and social equity. But to Tolstoy's wife, Sofya, Chertkov is another sycophant competing for her husband's affections and, more importantly, his e