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Helene of the North Synopsis

While waiting for the detained Lord Traverse, the guest of honor at an English society party, the guests play a game wherein each must tell a complete story before a cigarette burns out. Heléne Dearing relates that her proud father John left England after being exposed as a card cheat and became a whiskey runner near a Canadian lumber camp. John and his partner Pierre escape jail, and with Heléne, are pursued by Ralph Connell, a young Canadian Mounted Policeman, whom Heléne loves. John, wounded before they can reach the border, gives Pierre permission to marry Heléne, but a sympathetic curate reads the ceremony in Latin and has Ralph, as the witness, take the groom's marriage vows. After Pierre is captured and Heléne learns the truth about the marriage, Ralph leaves on a secret government mission. Heléne, who has since inherited a fortune, confides to the guests that she never saw Ralph again. After Lord Traverse arrives and turns out to be Ralph, he and Heléne leave the party to begin their belated honeymoon.

Marta of the Lowlands Synopsis

Marta is a beggar child, who is adopted by Sebastien, the wealthy landowner. Sebastien makes Marta his victim. He wishes to marry a wealthy woman, but at the same time retain his influence over Marta. He therefore arranges through Tomas, the hermit, to marry her to Manelich, a simple, untutored shepherd living in the mountains, a rough child of nature who kills wolves with his bare hands and knows naught of guile and deceit. The wedding is performed, Manelich being under the impression that Marta loves him, and being truly in love with her. Later he learns he has been tricked, while Marta, who had at first believed that Manelich had been bought with the master's gold to become her husband, finds her conclusion wrong, the honesty of his love compelling her own. Then come developments which make the drama one of the most passionate, intense, trenchant character studies ever created. Marta is a patient sufferer, a tragic figure indeed, as she bravely endures all the cruelty and indignities that are thrust upon her by the ruthless "master." We witness the poignancy of her grief, the restraint and the anguish of the oppressed woman, and her movements among the treacherous characters of her environment.