Summary
In the sun-cracked arena of 1920s California, where adulation is a narcotic swifter than bootleg gin, J. Wallingford Speed—a man whose name itself is a self-mocking prophecy—watches track idol Culver Covington lap up applause like a panther lapping blood. Covington’s kinetic halo ignites Speed’s own hunger for spectacle; he masquerades as a sprinter, hoping to magnetize Helen Blake’s gaze. But the fable pivots on a dusty axis: Roberta Keap, an heiress suffocating inside her marriage, flees east-coast parlors for her sagging Western ranch, clutching a divorce decree the way penitents clutch relics. Speed, Helen, and a caravan of flappers, grifters, and neurasthenic millionaires tag along, only to discover Roberta’s estranged husband Donald squatting at the swaggering Gallagher spread next door. Two homesteads—one gilded, one grim—become rival coliseums. Helen, half Circe, half sportswriter, wagers that a footrace can decide property lines, pride, and maybe fate itself. When Roberta and matriarch Gallagher stake every acre, stud horse, and silver spoon, the contest mutates into a dust-bowl Iliad. The Keaps’ champion limps, tendon twanging like a snapped banjo string; victory defaults to Speed, who has never run farther than a nightclub tab. On race day, camera shutters stutter like machine guns, dry earth erupts under studs, and Speed—sweat lacquering his hair into dark commas—discovers that love can be both ballast and afterburner. He wins, not through grace but through the brute alchemy of desperation, reuniting Roberta and Donald in a tentative détente while claiming Helen’s wary heart. The finish-line tape flutters down like a wedding veil over the bruised horizon.
Synopsis
Upon observing the adoration that track star Culver Covington receives, his friend, J. Wallingford Speed, decides to impress Helen Blake by also posing as a sprinter. Meanwhile, when Roberta Keap decides to retire to her Western ranch while awaiting her divorce, Speed, Helen and various friends accompany her while her husband Donald takes up residence at the neighboring Gallagher ranch. A rivalry springs up between the two ranches, and Helen persuades Speed to challenge the Keap homestead in a footrace. Matters become serious when Roberta and Mrs. Gallagher bet their entire holdings on the race. It begins to look ominous for the Keaps when their star sprinter develops a lame foot, thus placing the burden of winning on Speed. Miraculously, the intense competition of the race spurs Speed to win both his match and Helen's love, while also accomplishing the reconciliation of Donald and Roberta.
