It also follows three other tragic romances, set in a Middle Eastern city; in Venice, Italy; and in the Chinese Empire.

The Frank, however, is exposed as an infidel, and is chased to the roof, where he escapes by diving into a nearby body of water.

After he leaves, Zobeide orders her servant, Ayesha, to find the Frank and tell him to infiltrate the royal palace by nightfall.

After a short chase through the palace grounds, the guards capture the Frank, and the Caliph sentences him to death.

During the Carnival festival in Venice, Monna Fiametta, a noblewoman, is visited by her lover, Gianfrancesco, a merchant of the middle class.

Jealous of Monna's affections for Gianfrancesco, and aware of her hatred towards him, Girolamo reveals to her his plot to have her lover executed by order of the Council.

On a farm in the Chinese Empire, master magician A Hi receives a letter from the Emperor, requesting him to perform magic tricks at his birthday party.

Using his jade wand, A Hi flies a carpet to the Emperor's palace, with his two assistants, Tiao Tsien and Liang, in tow.

Although Death has won their bet, he takes pity on the female lover, and offers her one last chance to reunite with her beloved.

The film was largely inspired by the Indian mythological tale of Sati Savitri as well as the director's own personal experience.

According to Lang's biographer, Patrick McGilligan, the film "came on the heels of his mother's death, [and] would be the director 's most thoughtful and compassionate meditation on mortality.

"[2] He goes on to explain that Lang reportedly came up with his vision of Death while suffering from a fever in bed as a child: "He recalled envisioning the approach of 'the dark stranger' in a wide-brimmed hat, illumined by the moonlight streaming in through a half-open window.

'"[2] For a time, the intertitles for the film were thought to be lost; Munich Stadtmuseum director Enno Patalas recovered most of them from the Cinématèque Française thanks to Lotte Eisner.

[6] John S. Titford of Cinema Journal includes the character Death as an example of Lang's thematic interest with humans acting as machines.

[7] He argues that characters like Death "take on the quality of symbols, become archetypes of sub-human forces who embody the concept of Destiny, or the threat to the German nation in the years immediately after the first World War.

"[7] The ghost-like appearance of Death is a recurring feature in Lang's films, reportedly stemming from dreams he had as a child.

It wasn’t the three stories themselves that moved me so much, but the main episode – the arrival of the man in the black hat (whom I instantly recognised as Death) in the Flemish village – and the scene in the cemetery.

"[8]In Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou, two lovers are buried in the sand, in reference to the Frank's death in the film.

[10] According to Robert Cashill of Cineaste, Bernhard Goetzke's performance as Death had an influence on Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957).