Summary
Nance Molloy's effervescent spirit, a beacon of warmth in the grimy shadows of a cathedral-adjacent slum, becomes both her weapon and her salvation in this tale of retribution and redemption. Branded 'Sunshine Nan' for her relentless optimism, she navigates a treacherous social hierarchy dominated by the privileged choirboys, whose leader, MacPherson Clark, harbors a venomous grudge. Her unwitting entanglement in a domestic feud dooms her and her companion, Dan Lewis, to a brutal five-year stint at a reform school—a crucible that forges her resilience. Reentering society as a stenographer in the elder Clark's factory, Nan collides with Dan, now a reluctant revolutionary in the chemical department, whose groundbreaking dye formula becomes a catalyst for moral and industrial chaos. MacPherson's calculated theft of Dan's invention ignites a fiery climax, culminating in a cathartic conflagration that purges the factory's moral rot. The film's interplay of light and dark—from Nan's golden aura to the soot-choked alleys—mirrors her journey from innocence to wisdom, concluding with a civic gesture: the slum's rechristening as 'Cathedral Court,' a symbolic atonement for its sordid past.
Synopsis
Nance Molloy's cheerful disposition, in sharp contrast to the slum near the cathedral where she and her parents make their home, earns her the nickname "Sunshine Nan." However, her fights with the cathedral choirboys, led by MacPherson Clark, gets her into trouble. For interfering in a family squabble, she and her pal, Dan Lewis, are sent to reform school for five years, and upon her release, she becomes a stenographer in the elder Clark's shoe factory. Dan meanwhile has taken a job in the factory's chemical department, where he invents a dye process that promises to make him rich. In trouble over a woman, MacPherson decides to steal the formula and present it to his father as his own. Nan enters the lab just as MacPherson is copying Dan's formula, and the two old enemies begin to fight. Dan joins in the scuffle, but when some chemicals spill, the lab is enveloped in fire. Dan rescues Nan, and MacPherson, awakening in the hospital, remorsefully confesses his crime. Nan and Dan soon marry and the alley's name is changed to "Cathedral Court."
