American Harry Winslow asked Rita Heriot, a French soprano, to marry him. Winslow tells a German acquaintance, Baron van Bergen, the news. Van Bergen has tried himself to win Rita, and Winslow and Van Bergen part in anger. When war breaks out, the Germans capture the village where Rita lives. Rita is jailed, but is later rescued by one of the guards. Rita makes it to the Dutch frontier and is eventually told that Harry was lost at the Battle of the Marne. After a singing engagement at the Metropolitan in New York, Rita decides to sail on the Lusitania. Van Bergen urges her not to go, warning her that the ship will be torpedoed. Rita does not believe the Germans would commit such an act, and sets sail. Van Bergen transmits his orders to a submarine and the Lusitania is hit. Rita is saved. When Van Bergen finds in her London, he tries to attack her in her boudoir. She strangles him, and to escape the memory, she decides to help out the army's wounded. She is reunited with Harry. America enters the war.