Early in the nineteenth century in Paris, an evening party is held at Martin's residence on rue de la Chaussee d'Antin. Galantine, the residence's owner and widow of Duke Martin, holds a salon which is a social gathering of important people such as famous nobles, artists, and industrialists. At the party, a baron's second son Albert reunites with a count's daughter Vivianne whom he has known since childhood. After the loss of her father and elder brother who had stood against the present government, she was exiled to England along with her mother. However, following the advice of her aunt Galantine, she returned to Paris several years later when the government's vengeance against the opposition had subsided. Vivian and Albert are very delighted at their meeting again after a long interval and enthusiastically talk as if they were filling in the long blank of several years.