In Southern Siberia, at the heart of the Altai mountains, thousands of maral deer live in gigantic protected reserves. For centuries, every spring, their velvet antlers have been cut off in a bloody ritual to provide the Koreans with a natural sought-after aphrodisiac. Throughout an entire year in Russian Altai, Red Velvet recounts the fate of the maral deer and follows the unlikely journey of their antlers to South Korea.