The film begins at the Imperial German naval station at the Kiautschou Bay concession in China.
Two officers of SMS Emden have a romantic rivalry with Maria von Plettenberg, who lives with her father, mother and sister in Tsingtau.
Soon after a raiding party is sent ashore to destroy a British wireless installation in the Cocos Islands, Emden engages HMAS Sydney but the vessel is sunk with many of the crew captured.
Rather than surrender, the shore party seizes the schooner Ayesha and decides to sail back to the Kiautschou Bay concession to fight again.
When the crew arrives in the neutral Dutch East Indies they hear that the concession has been captured by the Japanese.