19th century. Russia. Elena belongs to a rich family. She spends her life at promenades, poetry reading and balls. A friend of a family brings along his fellow-student Insarov. The latter is a Bulgarian, who longs for his country's liberation from the Ottoman yoke. Insarov and Elena fall in love with each other. He is taken ill. Elena tends him in the hospital and at his home. She wants to marry him but her parents refuse to allow her to do so. Insarov has to go to Bulgaria when the preparations for an uprising are in progress. Elena decides to join him. The get married against the will of her parents and leave. On the way Insarov dies. Elena wants to have him buried in his homeland and to take over his revolutionary activities.