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Rich Man, Poor Man Synopsis

Betty Wynne is forced to work as a maid in a boarding-house after her mother's death. There she falls in love with one of the residents, Bayard Varick. Another of the lodgers, old Henry Mapleson, so admires Betty's sunny disposition that, in order to promote her well-being, he forges a document suggesting that she is the long-lost granddaughter of millionaire John K. Beeston. The insensitive old businessman, whom nobody loves, softens under Betty's influence and soon comes to love her dearly. Bayard, however, believing that Beeston ruined his father in a business deal years earlier, refuses to visit Betty in the rich man's house. Imagining that Bayard no longer loves her, Betty agrees to Beeston's wish that she marry her cousin, but when Bayard learns of Mapleson's forgery, he hurries to Beeston's estate to claim his sweetheart. The old man is reluctant to give her up but finally relents when he discovers that Bayard is his long-lost grandson.

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.