The Trepoff family consists of four members, father and son, both woodcutters, and mother and daughter, who are happy, although extremely poor. There comes a day. however, when father and son are seized by Tartar soldiers and carried before the Khan who calls upon them to abjure their faith. The son strikes the proffered Koran to the ground, emphatically refuses and is killed on the spot by the tyrant. Trepoff escapes and regains his home. The Tartars follow him and carry off the daughter before the despairing eyes of her parents, both too old and helpless to offer resistance. Trepoff then appeals to Dimitri Donskoj the valiant defender of the oppressed Russians, and at the head of a few followers Dimitri invades the Tartar camp, rescues the girl and restores her to her father.