In the Kentucky hills a store keeper tries to win the love of an innocent schoolteacher. She runs away and seeks refuge with a hermit.

Silent movie adaptation of Lessing's play. Set in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade, it describes how the wise Jewish merchant Nathan, the enlightened sultan Saladin and the (initially anonymous) Templar bridge their gaps between Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

This was Karl Valentin's first feature-length movie, as well as his last silent movie.