Lieutenant Anton Hofmiller, an Austro-Hungarian cavalry officer stationed far from home, is invited to a lavish party at the mansion of a rich Hungarian landowner, Lajos. In a world of luxurious living far removed from the bare life at the barracks, Anton meets Edith, the daughter of the host, and spontaneously asks her for a dance. When he realizes a sickness has left her crippled for life, deep compassion for her overtakes him, leading Edith to fall in love with him. Soon Anton is drawn into a vortex of events and emotions quite unforeseen, as pity and guilt inexorably implicate him in a well-meaning intention that tragically goes wrong.