Panthea Romoff, a political refugee from strife-torn Russia, is rescued after a shipwreck and finds refuge in Britain. After she falls in love with a composer and breaks up his marriage, the pair becomes exiled to Paris, where he composes an opera. In order to help her husband get his work produced, she becomes the mistress of a wealthy aristocrat, whom she later kills when her husband discovers the truth. She then flees back to Russia and is arrested and sentenced to a Siberian prison, where her husband follows to be reunited with her.