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
