Compiled by The Museum of Modern Art Film Library in 1938, the film is a glimpse of the early 20th century’s finest stage performers— Gabrielle Réjane, Eleonora Duse, Sarah Bernhardt, and Minnie Maddern Fiske. The compliation contains excerpts from four films, adapted from four timeless stories: Madame Sans-Gêne (1911), Cenere (1916), La Dame aux Camélias (1912), and Vanity Fair (1915).

Dame Eleonora Duse plays a poor woman who, incapable of raising and feed him, leaves her illegitimate son with foster parents. Before she leaves her boy, the woman gives to the child an amulet in order to protect him. The amulet will be the key to put him in connection with his old mother when the boy grows up.

Documentary consisting of archival footage that depicts the evolving conditions of Italian women during the first half of the 20th century.