A circus performer becomes a ballerina and then begins her life of a career versus marriage and a home-life. She marries her mentor and instructor, primarily out of gratitude. After his death, she marries an American, thinking that can be her escape from the world of ballet. But she leaves him to return to dancing. She has a child but does not tell her husband. When her daughter is two years old, the husband finds out and takes the child to America. The ballerina continues to dance until her best dancing days have gone by.