During the greater part of the day the guillotine had been kept busy at its ghastly work: all that France had boasted of in the past centuries, of ancient names, and blue blood, had paid toll to her desire for liberty and for fraternity. Set during the French Revolution, the story follows the mysterious English hero known as the Scarlet Pimpernel, who risks his life to rescue French aristocrats from the guillotine, pursued relentlessly by the ruthless French agent Chauvelin.