Glory is the wryly ironic story of Martin Edelweiss, a 22-year-old Russian emigre of no account, who is in love with a girl who refuses to marry him. Convinced that his life is about to be wasted and hoping to impress his love, he decides to embark upon a "perilous, daredevil project" - an illegal attempt to reenter the Soviet Union, from which he and his mother had fled in 1919. He succeeds - but at a terrible cost.