Summary
A sun-dappled mountain arcadia becomes the crucible for a pastoral fever-dream in which a barefoot milkmaid—nicknamed “The Weed” like some forgotten folk myth—trades eggs for coins and fate for fire. Between pines that whistle secrets, she meets George Bassett, a weather-worn plutocrat whose heart clangs like a rusted bell; his death-bed largesse rains a kingdom of timber and gold upon her unlettered palms. Enter Ralph Long, urban sinew and gasoline, whose roadster pirouettes into oblivion, hurling him toward her apron strings of mercy. Convalescence blooms into rapture until Kenneth Stewart—clubman, voyeur, biological ghost—develops a silver-gelatin shrine to her nude swim, framing innocence as public spectacle. One locked door, one slammed bolt, one howling shame. Through the gossiping ether Ralph learns the tyrant is sire, not stranger; a confrontation ricochets the reprobate into permanent exile while the girl, still aglow, receives a proposal wrapped in merciful silence.
Synopsis
A girl nicknamed "The Weed" lives with her foster parents in their mountain cabin and frequently visits a nearby health resort to sell milk and eggs. On one of her excursions, she befriends a cantankerous old millionaire, George Bassett, who later bequeaths to her his entire estate. Ralph Long's car plunges down an embankment, and he is dragged from the wreckage and looked after by the Weed, who soon captivates him with her charm and ingenuousness. While he is in the hospital, however, the lecherous Kenneth Stewart snaps a photo of the girl swimming in the nude in a mountain pool and hangs an enlargement of it in his club. He once attempts to enter her room but she bolts him out. Through a neighbor, Ralph learns that Stewart is actually the girl's father, whose abandonment of his wife soon after the Weed's birth led to the woman's death. Ralph confronts Stewart, and the latter, deeply ashamed, leaves town. Ralph resolves to keep the truth from the Weed and proposes to her.
