A Russian tax collector calling for his money, strikes down a woman of the impoverished family occupying the house, and threatens eviction. The Governor of the District brushes aside a petition for the collector's removal, when the daughter, who is a Nihilist, causes lots to be drawn for the executioner of the Governor. She draws the fatal paper, and hurls a bomb beneath the Governor at the railroad station. Caught by the guards, she is, with her family, banished to Siberia, from which she escapes up a steep mountainside to be next seen at Ellis Island.