Karl Von Austreim, a German-American living in the United States, bids farewell to his sweetheart, Angela Moore, and returns to Germany at the outbreak of World War I to fight for his native country. Count Jules de Destin of the French embassy, a rival for Angela's hand, also leaves, and shortly afterwards, Angela is called to France to care for her dying aunt. Her ship, the Veritania, is torpedoed, but she is rescued and finally arrives in France to find her aunt dead and the old chateau converted into a hospital. Having angrily forsaken her position of American neutrality, Angela agrees to conceal a telephone by which she may contact the retreating French, and after the Germans arrive, she begins sending messages to the Allies. Karl, transformed by the war, attacks Angela in the dark, but when the German colonel orders her to be shot as a spy, her former lover denounces the Kaiser and joins her before the firing squad. An attack by the French saves them, and they escape to a church, where Jules, as a reward for Angela's bravery, gives Karl his freedom and grants them both safe passage to America.