Patriotic Austrian costume drama, about the martyr Medardus who opposed Napoleon's occupation of Vienna in 1809. The plot proceeds in a series of confrontations with Medardus, his mother and sister, the blind exiled Count of Valois, his ambitious daughter, and Napoleon himself (portrayed as a cool strategist), including several brief flashbacks.

The young American heiress Alice—a spoiled, capricious millionaire’s daughter—is sent abroad by her exasperated father to live with her uncle, who promptly grows so weary of her whims that he throws her out. Determined to escape her family’s meddling, Alice devises a morbid plan: she will marry a man who is already gravely ill and sure to die within two weeks, leaving her a carefree widow.