The wife of the English consul in British-occupied Egypt at the turn of the century falls in love with a French foreign legionnaire, and her husband takes advantage of this to spy on secret plans for an uprising instigated by the French. An action by the French in the desert is then bloodily suppressed by the English. The legionnaire survives, but he cannot forgive the woman who loves him for the fact that many of his comrades have died as a result of her betrayal.