In the fourth film in the series, in 1910's Russia, a few acts of clumsiness puts Indy at odds with his father who is greatly displeased with Indy. Indy runs away into the Russian countryside and wakes in the morning on a haystack. He encounters colorful Gypsies, fierce Imperial Cossack troops, and an odd, cantankerous old man named Leo Tolstoy, who is in full agreement that "hell" is other people. Later, in Greece, Indy meets Nikos Kazantzakis, the writer who would some day write Zorba the Greek.

Dr. Lauren is staying in Prague for a conference and falls in love with Czech writer Jiri Kolmar.

A British citizen by the name of George Reiner (Jirí Sovák) arrives at Prague airport. He was once a Czech safe-breaker, and has now returned home after thirty years to steal twenty-dollar gold coins still kept in the safe at a private villa in Pilsen whose owner fled to the West.