The story deals with the betrothal of a Russian noblewoman and a prince of the blood. The girl’s father dies and the prince comes to claim the bride, only to find that the young woman, now her own mistress, has a mind and will of her own, also a sweetheart. The latter is a young Jew, a student at a military college. The discarded prince vows bitter revenge against his rival and sets about obtaining it by inciting the peasants to an anti-semitic uprising. In the meantime the Jew, realizing the obloquy which his marriage will entail on his noble sweetheart, determines to change the externals of his religion, this too will enable him to obtain his degrees at college which otherwise would be denied under the beneficent laws of Russia. The Feast of the Passover is being celebrated and his parents are expecting his presence at the feast when word comes to them that their son has been seen in a Christian procession. The heartbroken parents hurry to the church just as the ceremony of baptism has been completed. They meet their boy on the steps of the church and make an appeal to him not to forsake the faith of his fathers, but the Greek priests stand there as grim sentinels over his body and soul, and knowing what his recantation will mean for him and his beloved one he turns a deaf ear to the pleadings of his aged parents. In the meantime the Prince has aroused the peasants to action and the fury of religious persecution is in full swing. Jewish men, women and children are clubbed to death, and on all sides are to be seen the horrible evidence of brutal bigoted Russian barbarity. The young man has by this time married the woman for whom he has made such a noble sacrifice, and she appreciative of what he has done, pours out her treasures to him that his people may find succor and safety. But alas! Nothing can stem that fearful tide of human wantonness and slaughter. The young (Christian) Jew now decides to throw his lot in with the Nihilists. He goes through the preliminaries of initiation and is congratulating himself on his admission when suddenly he is arrested in a raid of the Nihilists’ den. He is tried and condemned to die, but, just as he is about to be executed on the scaffold, he is handed a conditional pardon, betray his Nihilist brothers and he will go free, but he spurns the offer and flings the paper in the face of the judge. A loud laugh greets his act. It was only a Nihilist test. Later on these same Nihilists affect his rescue from jail when the meshes of the net thrown by the prince has landed him. The flight of the young Jew and his bride is covered and made effective by the brave Nihilist brothers who check the pursuit of the prince and his hirelings in a royal battle. Finally we behold the young couple on board ship sailing into New York harbor where they behold with joy the Statue of Liberty.