The ex-revolutionary Gáspár Noszlopy escapes from prison in 1852. His order to capture the emperor Franz Joseph, who is to visit Hungary, with his companions and force him to sign the Declaration of Independence. He is only able to find four fanatic men (a Jewish shopkeeper, a Slovakian bandit, a Serbian count and a German gunsmith), as his one-time soldiers have already accepted the established order as unalterable, each of them having found a satisfactory way of life and unwilling to undertake a suicidal experiment. Noszlopy's faithful companions perish from his side, yet in the carriage which they capture a puppet sits in place of the emperor. The people of the country receive the emperor who put down the Hungarian freedom-fight with triumph-arches and celebrations line-firing. Noszlopy - as well as his ex-friend captain Szentgróthy - is executed.