Michel Strogoff, a 30-year-old resident of Omsk, is a courier for Tsar Alexander II of Russia. The Tartar-Kahn, Feofar, instigates an uprising and separates the Russian Far East from the mainland, cutting several telegraph lines. The rebels surround Irkutsk, where the local governor, a brother of the tsar, occupies a last stronghold. Strogoff is sent to Irkutsk to warn the governor about the traitor Ivan Ogareff. Ogareff is a former colonel who was demoted and exiled and now wants to take revenge on the royal family. He wants to destroy Irkutsk by setting fire to the huge oil storage tanks on the banks of the Angara.