Summary
As the Great War engulfs Europe, the idyllic existence of an American family fractures with brutal suddenness. Belgian matriarch Madame Maret (Mary Alden) and her ethereal elder daughter Leonie (Blanche Sweet) endure unspeakable degradation when German forces overrun their village—a harrowing captivity depicted through shadowed suggestion and trembling close-ups. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, fiery younger daughter Jeanne (also Blanche Sweet in a dual role) abandons New York comfort, plunging into the continental maelstrom armed only with forged papers and desperate courage. Her odyssey through ruined landscapes—populated by leering opportunists like the reptilian Von Eberhard (Wallace Beery) and opportunistic smugglers (Bull Montana)—escalates into a nerve-shredding cat-and-mouse game where salvation demands sacrifice, culminating in a rain-lashed confrontation forcing impossible choices between blood and justice.
Synopsis
At the outbreak of the First World War, a mother and one of her two daughters are captured and debased at the hands of the Germans. The other daughter goes from America to find them in war torn Belgium.
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