Yakov, while commuting to his job running the only flower shop in the city, cannot stop staring at a strange woman he sees on the street. He asks her if they've met, but she very deftly shuts him down and he leaves. At work, a local rich man orders a bouquet of yellow roses for a neighbor's dead child.

The next day, he sees the woman again and rushes to her, giving her a chamomile flower. She begins to cry, saying she was told that he wasn't supposed to remember her. Yakov is confused. She takes off and he follows, looking at the statues of those who died in the war. He sees a statue of the mysterious woman that says her name is Lena and she is a Grand Duchess. Lena slips away.

The Grand Duchess title is given to any female child or adopted child of the Tsar, as well as the wives of the Tsar's male children, so finding out who she is could be difficult. Yakov is interrupted at work by a woman saying the yellow roses delivered to her house are a problem as she's never had a son and her husband thinks they're from someone having an affair with her. After some research, Yakov finds that Lena lives in the palace, so he takes a bus there.

While there, Yakov thought about why he was going: he and Lena look so much alike that they must be related and she must be an adopted Duchess. He is let inside at the behest of a butler dressed in all white, and the entire interior is some shade of white as well. They drug his drink and take him to a strange room. When he wakes up, Lena is there. She explains that she is his sister. Young boys are taken from homes and made to join the army, and when families refuse they have their minds wiped so they forget their children. That is what happened to the young boy's family who received the yellow roses. Lena stayed up late when they came for her brother and demanded she be taken instead, so they wiped the mind of her family and she was adopted by the Tsarina as a Grand Duchess. They placed another flower under Yakov's pillow to make him forget again and leave him to sleep.

Yakov awakens in his home, his house a mess. A woman stops him in the street on his way to work and shows him a picture of Lena, saying they were supposed to run away together the week before. Yakov doesn't recognize Lena in the picture, and goes to work, feeling nothing for the woman's loss.