The most important aspect of "Cenere" is that it was the only film in which appeared the eminent Italian stage actress Dame Eleonora Duse. She plays a poor woman who, incapable of raising and feed him, leaves her illegitimate son with foster parents. Before she leaves her boy, the woman gives to the child an amulet in order to protect him. The amulet will be the key to put him in connection with his old mother when the boy grows up.