Part one focuses on the rise and fall of Maximilian's short-lived empire and the concurrent documentation of the ruins of ancient pre-Hispanic empires by foreign photographers. Part two traces the emergence of Mexico as a modern, industrialized nation over the next fifty years, through long presidency of Porfirio Díaz. It ends with the extraordinary, decade-long upheaval caused by the revolution that began in 1910 in the wake of centennial celebrations of Mexico's struggle for independence.