The manufacturer's daughter refuses to marry the superintendent and elopes with a foreign count, who does not keep his promise to wed. Her father, summoned by her, pays the adventurer to give the girl his name. Thieves kill the count for his money. The countess returns home with her child, and after her father's death, oppresses the factory workman to get more money for the future prince. The workmen strike, but she will not yield to their demands. Her hand is forced by the superintendent, who has found her letter to her father confessing her shame. He declares that he will publish the letter if she does not yield and, rather than lose her good name, she grants the workmen's demands.