diff --git a/src/EntityOperations.php b/src/EntityOperations.php
index e41cf7f..ed608be 100644
--- a/src/EntityOperations.php
+++ b/src/EntityOperations.php
@@ -70,16 +70,26 @@ class EntityOperations {
    *   The type of entity being loaded, such as "node" or "user".
    */
   public function entityStorageLoad(array $entities, $entity_type_id) {
-    $needs_default = array_filter($entities, function(EntityInterface $entity) {
-      return $this->moderationInfo->isModeratableEntity($entity)
-        && $entity->moderation_state->target_id == NULL;
-    });
-
-    // Because objects pass by handle, this will modify each in place
-    // appropriately.
-    array_map(function(ContentEntityInterface $entity) {
-      $entity->moderation_state->target_id = $this->getDefaultLoadStateId($entity);
-    }, $needs_default);
+
+    // Ensure that all moderatable entities always have a moderation_state field
+    // with data, in all translations. That avoids us needing to have a thousand
+    // NULL checks elsewhere in the code.
+
+    // Quickly exclude any non-moderatable entities.
+    $to_check = array_filter($entities, [$this->moderationInfo, 'isModeratableEntity']);
+    if (!$to_check) {
+      return;
+    }
+
+    // @todo make this more functional, less iterative.
+    foreach ($to_check as $entity) {
+      foreach ($entity->getTranslationLanguages() as $language) {
+        $translation = $entity->getTranslation($language->getId());
+        if ($translation->moderation_state->target_id == NULL) {
+          $translation->moderation_state->target_id = $this->getDefaultLoadStateId($translation);
+        }
+      }
+    }
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/tests/src/Kernel/EntityStateChangeValidationTest.php b/tests/src/Kernel/EntityStateChangeValidationTest.php
index 0f013c1..538f2b9 100644
--- a/tests/src/Kernel/EntityStateChangeValidationTest.php
+++ b/tests/src/Kernel/EntityStateChangeValidationTest.php
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 namespace Drupal\Tests\workbench_moderation\Kernel;
 
 use Drupal\KernelTests\KernelTestBase;
+use Drupal\language\Entity\ConfigurableLanguage;
 use Drupal\node\Entity\Node;
 use Drupal\node\Entity\NodeType;
 use Drupal\node\NodeInterface;
@@ -16,7 +17,7 @@ class EntityStateChangeValidationTest extends KernelTestBase {
   /**
    * {@inheritdoc}
    */
-  public static $modules = ['node', 'workbench_moderation', 'user', 'system'];
+  public static $modules = ['node', 'workbench_moderation', 'user', 'system', 'language', 'content_translation'];
 
   /**
    * {@inheritdoc}
@@ -93,7 +94,7 @@ class EntityStateChangeValidationTest extends KernelTestBase {
 
     $nid = $node->id();
 
-    // Enable moderation for Articles.
+    // Enable moderation for our node type.
     /** @var NodeType $node_type */
     $node_type = NodeType::load('example');
     $node_type->setThirdPartySetting('workbench_moderation', 'enabled', TRUE);
@@ -113,4 +114,49 @@ class EntityStateChangeValidationTest extends KernelTestBase {
     $node->save();
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Verifies that content without prior moderation information can be translated.
+   */
+  public function testLegacyMultilingualContent() {
+    // Enable French
+    ConfigurableLanguage::createFromLangcode('fr')->save();
+
+    $node_type = NodeType::create([
+      'type' => 'example',
+    ]);
+    $node_type->save();
+    /** @var NodeInterface $node */
+    $node = Node::create([
+      'type' => 'example',
+      'title' => 'Test title',
+      'langcode' => 'en',
+    ]);
+    $node->save();
+
+    $nid = $node->id();
+
+    $node = Node::load($nid);
+
+    // Creating a translation shouldn't break, even though there's no previous
+    // moderated revision for the new language.
+    $node_fr = $node->addTranslation('fr');
+    $node_fr->setTitle('Francais');
+    $node_fr->save();
+
+    // Enable moderation for our node type.
+    /** @var NodeType $node_type */
+    $node_type = NodeType::load('example');
+    $node_type->setThirdPartySetting('workbench_moderation', 'enabled', TRUE);
+    $node_type->setThirdPartySetting('workbench_moderation', 'allowed_moderation_states', ['draft', 'needs_review', 'published']);
+    $node_type->setThirdPartySetting('workbench_moderation', 'default_moderation_state', 'draft');
+    $node_type->save();
+
+    // Reload the French version of the node.
+    $node = Node::load($nid);
+    $node_fr = $node->getTranslation('fr');
+
+    /** @var NodeInterface $node_fr */
+    $node_fr->setTitle('Nouveau');
+    $node_fr->save();
+  }
 }