Nellie Panburne returns home from College to her parents' house in London. Her mother seems to have disappeared and her father is reluctant to tell her why. Nellie's sister invites them both to come visit her at her country estate. Shortly after Nellie and her father arrive in the countryside, a stranger passes Nellie on horseback and is deeply smitten by her appearance.
Nellie's three suitors make fun of her when she asks them about the attractive stranger. One of them, a certain Mr. Levy, has asked Nellie's father for his daughter's hand in marriage. Nellie rejects Mr. Levy's proposal, sending her father into a fit of rage.
Nellie returns to London and meets her mother, who has become the head of a group of Suffragettes. Nellie's mother introduces her to the Suffragette movement and Nellie joins the group. During a demonstration for women's right to vote, Nellie smashes a shop window and is arrested. In prison, she refuses to eat. An attempt to force-feed her is made but fails and Nellie is released.
Nellie and her mother appear at a Suffragette rally, which is later disbanded by the police. Back home, they receive a visit from Lola Rodrigues the ex-mistress of Lord Ascue, a politician who wants to ban the Suffragette movement. Together they discuss how to stop Lord Ascue. Lola is upset because Lord Ascue has ended their affair and craves revenge. She offers Nellie a bundle of old love letters and suggests that the Suffragettes use them to help their cause.
Mrs. Panburne sends Nellie to Lord Ascue on a mission to blackmail him with the love letters. However, as they don't believe that it will be easy to sway him, Nellie also takes with her a bomb equipped with a time-fuse. While waiting for Lord Ascue in his study, Nellie places the bomb under his chair. When Nellie finally meets Lord Ascue, she realises that he was the attractive strange who had passed her in the countryside. Both are devastated to learn that they are foes.
Lord Ascue refuses to change his plans for an anti-Suffragette law and Nellie returns home heartbroken by his decision. The bomb is set to explode at midnight but Nellie later decides to save Lord Ascue and rushes back to his house. Lord Ascue's butler refuses her entry on account of the fact that an important meeting is going on inside. Nellie forces the butler to retrieve Lord Ascue from his study by threatening to expose Lord Ascue's affair with Lola Rodrigues. In the end, the bomb goes off but luckily no one is hurt.
Lord Ascue realises that Nellie has saved him from certain death and, in so doing, turned her back on the Suffragettes. The pair can finally admit their feelings for each other and Lord Ascue proposes to Nellie.
Annette Groschke / Oliver Hanley, Deutsche Kinemathek, Nov 2008
