Karel Havlíček Borovský dies leaving his daughter Zdeňka an orphan. She is taken care of by Czech revivalists led by František Ladislav Rieger. Revivalists want to make her a perfect symbol of the tenderness of Czech culture but rebellious Zdeňka wants to live her life according to her ideas. When she falls in love with a Polish officer of the Austrian army she turns in public eyes from a girl loved by the crowd literally to a traitor of the nation and a whore. Will Zdeňka manage to assert her romantic love, or will she give in to the pressure and marry a boring landowner from a good Czech family?