The time is 1850 and the place is the Austro-Hungarian Empire. An uprising against Emperor/Kaiser Franz Josef has been suppressed and all have been forgiven---if still living---except a young Captain, Joseph Foldessy, who is working, under an assumed name, for Count Graf Paalen. He falls in love with Christ'l, daughter of the Imperial Forester. The Emperor arrives as the guest of the count, and Christ'l runs across him in the forest and, mistaking him for a minor court official, detain him for poaching. Foldessy's true identity becomes known to the secret police and he is arrested. Christ'l appeals to her newly-found friend, whose real identity she does not know, to get her an audience with the Emperor so that she can plead Foldessy's case. The request is granted and she then learns the identity of her new friend, who grants a pardon to her lover, who immediately surmises that Christ'l and the Emperor are having an affair. The Emperor straightens that incorrect assumption out, also.