During World War II, American Red Cross workers save the life of Caroline 'Kitten" Descournay, a sickly French baby living in North Africa with her family. Upon realizing the gift she has been bestowed, a grown-up Kitten determines to repay her debt to the United States. Growing up in postwar Europe, Kitten realizes her family's traditions have lost their luster and purpose. Single and free, she feels detached enough to leave her parents and a brilliant future in Paris behind, much to their chagrin. When she emigrates to the United States in the late Sixties, Kitten steps into an American life where everything seems to burst with energy and dynamism under a lack of authority. Armed with an old-world education and upbringing, she lives life to it's fullest. The Emperor's Bracelet portrays Kitten's descent from riches to rags to fulfill her goal of becoming a U.S. citizen.