The protagonist, Ben Connolly, is a Civil War veteran from the slums of New York, with the rather modest aspiration of being hired as a staff reporter for the New York Vision. Because of his demonstrated initiative and speaking a very few words of French, he is made a war correspondent on the whim of the Vision's publisher who sends him to France to cover the bloody uprising by the Paris Reds and working class against the French central government. In Paris, Ben is almost killed several times, falls in love with an American artist, becomes a fast friend of General Jaroslaw Dombrowski, and writes notable stories. He emerges with an expansive ambition to become a famous writer instead of an obscure journalist.