Die Rache einer russischen Waise

St. Petersburg (1.-3. scene): Sophie, a Russian orphan lives with her aunt Yadwigha. She falls in love with Heinrich, but her aunt forbids her to marry him. So the two of them decide to escape. Meanwhile Sophie’s aunt dies in St. Petersburg. Heinrich doesn’t really intend to marry Sophie – she is too poor for him. He absconds. Eduard, their wedding witness, has to tell Sophie, who is prostrate and decides to shoot herself. General Bosquet, a veteran of the Crimea war, takes care of her as his own child. Sophie’s friend Nina writes a letter from St. Petersburg to tell Sophie that Heinrich has married a rich woman. When General Bosquet dies Sophie, now an orphan again, goes back to St. Petersburg, and decides to take revenge on Heinirch. He is lured by a trick to a masked ball at Nina’s home, where he is exposed and shot in a duel with Gaston, Sophie’s former devotee.