A self-absorbed songstress (LeBlanc) is poisoned by one of her many spurned lovers (Hériat) but then resuscitated by a doting scientist (Catelain). LeBlanc, a famed stage actress, financed a large part of the film and played a central role in scripting her proto-feminist character, who refuses to mourn her dead lover. A visual feast, the film features elaborate Cubist set pieces designed by Fernand Léger, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Claude Autant-Lara and Alberto Cavalcanti.

"Actualities"–early shorts depicting real-life scenes–reached a new level of aestheticization with this film.  Porter's camera sweeps across Coney Island's nighttime light displays, "capturing" the scene as it was, but also imbuing it with a dreamy quality that is distinctly cinematic.

In this early parody of the popular travelogue, things go horribly wrong for an American tourist in Europe. Porter's resourcefulness is in full evidence here; the film incorporates original material shot on location and in the studio (with pasteboard sets depicting European locales), intercut with travel footage excerpted from various actualities.