 Marco, a traveling soldier in Renaissance Italy, enters the employ of an ambitious lord named Astolfo whose cruel reign is being challenged by a rebel known as "the Red Mask." Marco soon becomes romantically involved with both Karima, a Gypsy woman, and Iolanda, Astolfo s niece who blames her uncle for her father s death. Intrigues at the court soon result in Marco s fall from favor. He s about to be executed when a rebellion erupts in which the Red Mask s true identity is dramatically revealed.