Based upon Dixon's novel The Fall of a Nation, the film is now lost, although the complete score survives.

[3] The Fall of a Nation is an attack on the pacifism of William Jennings Bryan and Henry Ford and a plea for American preparedness for war.

However, America is saved by pro-war Congressman John Vassar who raises an army to defeat the invaders with the support of the suffragette Virginia Holland.

An earlier music score was composed by Camille Saint-Saëns for the short (15-minute) film The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1908); the complete soundtrack is available on YouTube.

[6] The film was widely shown as propaganda by Allied governments in Europe during World War I, especially the Russian Empire.