The story tells of the adventures of an unusual young duke, whose father, the old Grand Duke of Kiev, coveted the wife of Count Dardinilis, his colonel of Huzzars; of the old Grand Duke's plot to get her for himself; of her accidental death at the hands of his Cossacks, and of the colonel's escape with his little daughter to America. The young Grand Duke, now an orphan, comes to America to complete his education.