Civilization's Child plot
After an idyllic mountain life in Russia, Berna goes to live with her uncle in the Jewish part of Kiev, where she arrives just as the Cossacks are slaughtering most of the Jews in the city. Berna escapes to New York and works in a business controlled by boss Jim McManus, but he seduces her, then throws her out on the street and she becomes a prostitute. Berna later marries Nicolay Turgenev, a young musician, and they soon have a child, but McManus' daughter Ellen falls in love with Nicolay after seeing him perform and convinces him to leave Berna.