Ballerina Dominika Egorova's career endures a setback when she breaks her leg during a performance. After recovering, she tries to get back her role through doing a favour for her uncle, a senior officer in the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service ('SVR'). This makes her a witness to a murder, putting her life in danger. In order to stay alive she joins the SVR and receives training as a 'Sparrow', a female espionage agent. Her first assignment: seduce a CIA agent in Budapest and find out the name of his mole in Moscow.—grantss