The Countess de Challant has the misfortune to be married to a most disagreeable man, and it is small wonder that she falls in love with a young courtier, who finally, in order to still more win her favor, kills her husband. The night watch finds the body of the slain man and follows the trail of the assassin, which leads to the home of the countess. The house is searched, but the countess has permitted the young man to escape. Nevertheless, a bloody handprint on a pillow betrays him as well as his inamorata, and she is accused of being an accomplice of the crime. She is tried, condemned to death, and her lover witnessing the execution from the crowd, falls dead at the foot of the scaffold.
—Moving Picture World synopsis