Lt. Kije is the story of an imaginary soldier, created when the Russian Tsar misread a smudged name on a list of his men. Everyone around the Tsar was too afraid to tell him there was no such person, so they just invented an entire life for the nonextistent Kije. He gets married and become a hero -- all on paper. When the Tsar finally demands to meet Kije, the military holds his funeral.