Summary
A prairie schoolmarm, stifled by wind-bent horizons and the tepid courtship of a village swain, flees to the electric labyrinth of the city, trading chalk-dust for cabaret-spotlights in a gamble for stardom. Her trembling ambition is swiftly collateralized by a married racketeer whose wallet bleeds his wife’s savings; the IOU he extracts becomes a velvet noose around the girl’s conscience when her father’s life hangs on an operation she cannot afford. The creditor’s desertion, a faked death on a rattling night-train, and a resurrection in Chicago’s ward-politics braid into a sprawling triangulation of guilt: the showgirl clawing toward marquee glory, the abandoned wife forging a second marriage with the very prosecutor who once loved the borrower, and the resurrected bigamist brandishing blackmail like a switchblade. When bullets finally fly in a shadow-clogged apartment, the wrong woman is arrested for the trigger-pull; the true shooter is a vengeance-driven stranger, leaving the cabaret star to shoulder a martyrdom that retroactively proves unnecessary.
Synopsis
Myra Fielding, a young country schoolteacher, becomes dissatisfied with the narrow outlook of her home, and goes to the city, despite the protests of her half-accepted sweetheart, Bert Temple. There she obtains work in a cabaret, hoping to attract the attention of some theatrical manager. She becomes acquainted with Al Wayne, a flashy "sport" who, although he is married, insists on paying attention to her. She learns that her father is in urgent need of medical attention, and having no money of her own to defray the necessary expenses, is forced to borrow from Wayne. He gives her $500, securing an I.O.U. for the money, thinking in this way to obtain a hold over the girl. Wayne has taken the money from funds belonging to his wife, Edith, who, when she discovers her loss, accuses him of the theft. Wayne leaves her in anger, and going to Myra, demands that she leave the town with him. Myra refuses, and as they are arguing, Bert Temple enters the room. Temple thrashes Wayne, but scorning the life he thinks Myra is lending, leaves her. Wayne leaves for Chicago, but is robbed of his wallet on the train by a pick-pocket, who is later killed while jumping off a car. The thief is identified as Wayne by the papers in the wallet, Wayne does not correct the error, preferring to start life again under a new name. Arriving in Chicago, he embarks upon a "political career" in a tough quarter of the city. All of his old associates think him dead. Edith, meanwhile, has discovered Myra's I.O.U., and writes her, reproaching her for not only stealing her money, but her husband also. Myra calls on Edith, and tells her that she never knew that Wayne was married, and promises to repay the money. In the course of time, Myra succeeds in her ambition, and becomes a musical comedy star. By a strange coincidence, Temple, her old sweetheart, meets Edith, and falls in love with her. She, thinking Wayne dead, marries Temple, and they go to Chicago to live. Temple eventually becomes District Attorney. He starts to wipe out the political gang that has been grafting on the city. Wayne, who is one of the gang that Temple is after, recognizes him, and learns that Edith is his wife. Wayne goes to Temple's home, and revealing himself to Edith, tells her that she is still his wife, but offers to remain silent if Temple will stop his prosecution of the gang. Edith, half-crazed by the situation, meets Wayne at his apartment to see if he will relent. Myra, playing in a Chicago theater, sees Wayne, and marvels at his being alive. Investigating, she learns the true state of affairs and discovers that Edith is to meet her former husband at his apartment. She remembers the wrong she unwittingly did Edith, and desiring to do what she can to help her follows her. There, from a place of concealment, she sees Edith, attacked by Wayne, shoot and apparently kill him. She leaps out from her hiding place and hurries the other woman out of the room through the fire-escape. Then she returns, in time to be caught by the police, who have arrived, attracted by the noise of the shot. Edith goes to her home all unnerved, and confesses everything to her husband. He loves her well enough to stand by her, and conducts an investigation into the entire affair. The search reveals the fact that, instead of having been killed by Edith, Wayne was shot by a man who had lain in wait for him for that purpose. Myra's sacrifice was therefore made unnecessary and she is released, bearing with her, nonetheless, the blessings of her former sweetheart and his wife.
