The play illustrates the basis from which anti-Semitism often springs. A stranger rescues a Baron from highway robbers whose false beards have led the nobleman to believe that they were Jews. Having been invited to stay with the Baron, the stranger exposes the robbers as the Baron's own bailiff and agent, who are gentiles. The Baron's daughter and the mysterious traveller have fallen in love, and he is finally forced to reveal that he is himself a Jew. By this time the Baron's eyes have been opened to his prejudice, and the lovers are betrothed.