Pisa, 11th century. Spina, a young priestess daughter of Peter, is devoted to keeping a flame burning that illuminates the way back for those returning from the Crusade. But the Florentine knight Lamberto falls in love with her and the two young men fail in the vow of chastity that Spina committed. The shame for having betrayed the promise of purity made pushes Spina to suicide and Lamberto kills himself with her.
Em 79 A.D., o respeitável pompeiano Glaucus tem um ato de generosidade ao comprar Nídia, uma escrava cega que é maltratada por sua dona. Nídia apaixona-se pelo novo mestre, mas ele só tem olhos para Jone. Esta, por sua vez, é cobiçada por Arbace, sacerdote egípcio de Ísis. Quando Nídia implora o auxílio de Isis para conquistar o coração de Glaucus, Arbace dá a ela uma poção de amor que afeta a mente, mas não o coração de Glaucus.
This story first takes you to Misslimeri, a little Sicilian village, and into the home of Don Ruggero, a wealthy landowner. Don Ruggero is an iron-hearted man and strongly prejudiced against the lower classes. His son, Corrado, a young fellow, loves Rosalia, a shepherdess, but Don Ruggero has always refused to allow their marriage and to recognize little Vincenzino, their child, as his grandchild. Finally to destroy all Corrado's hopes, he discharges poor Rosalia from his farm, where she had been employed for many years. Even the sight of her departure with Vincenzino in her arms does not soften him. Rosalia is the very ideal of the Sicilian beauty, and Capt. Altieri, an officer in the service of the Dominators, the Bourbons, admires her immensely, but all his approaches are strongly repulsed by her. Don Ruggero and his son have for a long time conspired to free their motherland from the hands of the Bourbons, and when they receive news of the arrival of Garibaldi.
