Helena is an orphan in the care of the Countess of Roussillon. She loves Bertram, the Countess' son but he's of noble birth and she's the daughter of a doctor. The King of France falls ill while Bertram is at the court and Helena's cure wins her the right to marry Bertram.

Lithuanian-born author, journalist, and activist Abraham Cahan made a name for himself first with his investigative journalism and later with his fiction, much of which focused on the immigrant experience in America and specifically New York City. In The White Terror and the Red, however, the action unspools against the dramatic backdrop of the Russia's revolutionary struggles.