Apfelland is a small yet beautiful nation bordered by Russia, Austria, and Germany. Vel is a boy residing in the capital, Charlottenburg. He happens to assist a girl named Frid. She was kidnapped because a radium deposit was discovered in her grandfather's abandoned mine. Various individuals converge on the site, drawn by the radium: for instance, an American seeking profit, a Polish woman disguised as a man to fund the revolution, and the Apfelland ministry plotting to affiliate with Germany. Vel and Frida become entangled in these schemes, and they are aware of the mine's secret.