Sergeant Gischa Patrotkin (Chester Morris), a simple-minded Russian soldier, escapes from a German prisoner-of-war camp. He hides out for awhile with a peasant girl named Babka (Betty Compson), but finally his longing for his homeland overcomes him. Wearing the identity of a dead Russian spy he is soon recaptured by the Germans and sentenced to death. The German ruthlessness and disdain for justice is driven home when proof of his innocence of being the spy is brushed aside.