Despite his peasant upbringing, proud Ivan Markov (John Barrymore) rises to the officer ranks of the Russian Army during the waning years of the czarist era, regardless of the class-based resentments of his aristocratic fellow officers. His love for Princess Tamara (Camilla Horn) leads to his downfall when she rebuffs his affections and has him imprisoned out of spite. But when the Bolshevik Revolution begins, Markov's common origins work to his advantage, giving him a chance to even the score.