The play opens with a beautifully-colored scene of an Italian village and the introduction of Teresa, the village coquette, who is the despair of the rustic beaux. Luigi is passionately in love with her; his passion blinds him to all else, even his mother's love. He is poor and Teresa is poor, but she deplores her hopeless poverty and longs to go to the land of promise, America. To furnish her with traveling money, Luigi sells his cart and horse. His mother pleads against it; she curses him and Teresa for their disloyalty. Teresa sails for America; Luigi goes on the boat as a deckhand. As the steamer passes into the horizon, the old mother stands on a rock and, silhouetted against the setting sun, calls down a curse upon the woman of temptation. On the boat, Teresa flirts with Giuseppi, a dandified Americanized Italian. Luigi observes but is powerless to interfere. In America Teresa continues the break by flirting with Giuseppi. In the depth of his despair his mother arrives. Together they attend the holy parade. Luigi hears Giuseppi tell Teresa that for her he would steal the sacred jewels. The audacity enchants her and she puts him to the test. He refuses. She flouts him as a braggart and leaves. Luigi says that he will steal the jewels to win her. In a scene of intense suspense he accomplishes his purpose and brings the jewels to the girl. At first she is appalled with the audacity of the thing: and then fear of the holy mother takes hold of her. She rushes to the house where the Italians are having a festival. They curse her for an arch thief. The church bells toll and the people flee from her. She is left alone when Luigi finds her. She repulses him and in the confusion her mind grows blank. She goes out to the hands of a mob, and Luigi, his heart broken, dies by his own hand before the holy picture and the Madonna. The old mother rushes in and takes his lifeless form into her arms. Teresa is taken away by the police to a lonely life in an asylum.