Using newsreel footage, this film reviews world events from the end of World War I to the American entry into World War II and, according to the narration, shows "how, through their disunity, democracies were led, some to destruction and others to the verge of destruction." In 1919, the leaders of the nations of the world gather at Versailles to sign the treaty ending World War I. Although U.S. President Woodrow Wilson fights to establish the League of Nations, the United States rejects the Treaty of Versailles and with it, the League of Nations. In Russia, a revolution overthrows the czarist government. By 1928, the German Republic is in ferment as the Nazis and Adolf Hitler move into power, and Germany stops paying war reparations. In Italy, Fascist leader Benito Mussolini comes to power and begins to arm the Italians, while in Great Britain, Prime Minister Lloyd George warns that the future of mankind depends on cooperation between the United States and Great Britain.