The scene is set during the Second Empire Captain Bitterlin watches jealously over his lovely daughter Madeleine but he cannot prevent nature from demanding its rights and Madeleine soon finds herself a suitor in the person of Mario a dashing young songwriter Bitterlin who wishes his daughter to evade the grip of the young man takes her away to Monte Carlo There the captain does what he had sworn he would never do he gambles in a casino And even more upsetting Mario might well be hereabouts