Engineer Mstislav Sergeyevich Los travels to Mars where he leads a popular uprising against the ruling group of Elders with the support of Queen Aelita who has fallen in love with him after watching him through a telescope.

A mysterious radio message is beamed around the world, and among the engineers who receive it are Los, the hero, and his colleague Spiridonov. Los is an individualist dreamer. Aelita is the daughter of Tuskub, the ruler of a totalitarian state on Mars in which the working class are put into cold storage when they are not needed. With a telescope, Aelita is able to watch Los. As if by telepathy, Los obsesses about being watched by her. After some hugger-mugger involving the murder of his wife and a pursuing detective, Los takes the identity of Spiridonov and builds a spaceship. With the revolutionary Gusev, he travels to Mars, but the Earthlings and Aelita are thrown into prison by the dictator. Gusev and Los begin a proletarian uprising, and Aelita offers to lead the revolution, but she then establishes her own totalitarian regime. Los is shocked by this development and attempts to stop Aelita, and then reality and fantasy become confused, and Los discovers what has really happened.—Fiona Kelleghan <[email protected]>

Bolshevik propaganda : the comparison between 1921's Russia, and a capitalistic planet Mars. Engineer Los is building a spaceship to reach Mars. He is in love with Aelita, the regent, who he met in his dreams. In real life, his wife Natacha takes care of refugees. [Actually, Aelita is the figurehead queen, and not the regent (Tuskub), who holds the real power. Los's wife should be spelled "Natasha." -- Added notes by Prof S P Hill.]—Yepok