Greg King and Penny Wilson have collaborated on the drama surrounding the lives of the Russian Imperial family during their 78-day incarceration in the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg in July 1918. The authors dispel the myths that have grown out of the often confused and fabricated stories of those days from both sides, the Bolsheviks and the monarchists, as well as the fog of secrecy with which the subsequent Soviet government shrouded the most famous and infamous royal execution in history. The book takes a look not only into the personal lives of the royal family, but also delves into the lives of their guards and executioners, most of whom came to sympathize with the Romanovs.

The research also follows what happened when the secret graves were uncovered deep in the Koptyaki Forest nearly eighty years later, the DNA confirmation of the Romanov remains, the often contentious fight for ownership of the remains between Yekaterinburg and Moscow, the technological difficulties between Russian and American scientists when faced with proper identification of the remains, and the tug-of-war between officials over where the Romanovs' last resting place should be designated.