Henny Porten and Franz (Francis) Lederer star in this revealing film in which imagery of the proletarian world that recalls the Soviet silent films of the post-revolutionary period, is used as a backdrop to an anti-revolutionary theme. Lederer portrays a young revolutionary, Martin, who joined the workers' movement following World War I but who has returned from the Soviet Union eight years later, a spiritually disillusioned and physically broken man. He finds a job, a sweetheart (Porten) to tend him, and renewed acceptance from his family, but these are but temporary refuge and he dies a tragic death. The film has been noted for its frank allusions to the politics of the late Weimer Republic--and for its denunciation of the workers' movement, which critics attribute to Ufa, the production company that took over distribution one year before the film was released. Film historian Georges Sadoul notes that during the Nazi regime, director Karl Froelich was head of Reichsfilmkammer.