Summary
A tycoon’s iron will fractures two destinies when he erases his son’s marriage to a mill-hand, torching every certificate and memory; the groom is spirited away, told his bride perished in molten fire, while the girl—newly pregnant—wanders into the electric metropolis, gives birth in a charity ward, and glimpses newspaper vows that crown her husband with an heiress. Out of soot she ascends, becoming the flickering queen of a back-lot empire, her face on every marquee, her heart a reel of vengeance. When the patriarch’s Mexican speculations collapse, she buys the mortgage to his baronial estate and produces a torrid photoplay that screens the family’s sins in crimson tint. The son, watching himself portrayed as a puppet of patricide, awakens; the old man crawls, cadaverous with remorse; only the lawful wife’s money can staunch ruin. Yet sacred bonds remain severed until the counterfeit bride elopes with a bohemian painter, brush in one hand, train tickets to Veracruz in the other, clearing celluloid smoke so that theoriginal lovers may at last rewind time.
Synopsis
Although Earle Courtney has married factory girl Annie Leigh, his millionaire father, Major James Courtney, is determined that Earle will marry the wealthy Ethel Ainsworth. Courtney kidnaps his son and sends a message to Annie requesting an annulment, to which he signs Earle's name. All records of the marriage are then destroyed and Earle is led to believe that his wife has perished in a factory fire. Meanwhile, Annie goes to the city looking for her husband and there her child is born. While in the hospital, she reads an announcement of the wedding of Earle and Ethel. Obtaining employment in a film studio, Annie soon soars to stardom. When Mexican investments result in financial disaster for the Courtneys, Annie takes over the mortgage on their estate and produces a picture based on the story of her betrayal. When Earle views it, he learns of his father's treachery and the major, overcome with remorse, begs Annie's forgiveness. Nothing can undo Earle's unhappy marriage, though, until Ethel elopes with artist Paul Roubais, thus removing all obstacles in the path of Annie and Earle's reconciliation.
