Summary
In the subterranean shadows of an urban wasteland, Mae exists as a spectral figure of the 'dives,' a dancer whose origins are as murky as the gin-soaked air she breathes. Her only tether to a semblance of humanity is Bob, a waiter laboring under the heavy yoke of a previous criminal record and the watchful eye of the law. Their fragile aspirations for a bourgeois domesticity—glimpsed through the voyeuristic lens of a park bench observation—are shattered when the predatory Graves attempts to violate Mae’s person, precipitating a lethal struggle. As Mae faces the clinical, unforgiving machinery of the state, she is confronted by Judge Lewis, a man whose adherence to the letter of the law is matched only by his profound emotional sterility. The trial serves as a crucible where a forgotten locket, a relic of a discarded past, acts as a catalyst for a revelatory genealogical excavation. Through the testimony of a reclusive photographer and an elderly man named Aitken, the narrative pivots into a sprawling melodrama of desertion and latent guilt, ultimately forcing the arbiter of justice to reckon with the biological consequences of his own youthful ambition and moral cowardice.
Synopsis
Mae is a girl of the slums. Her antecedents are unknown. She works as a dancing girl around a rough dive where her sweetheart Bob is a waiter. Graves, a cheap sport, takes a fancy to Mae and asks the bartender who she is. The bartender tells him that nobody knows where she came from. When Graves becomes fresh with Mae, Bob warns him off. On their day off, Bob and Mae go walking in the park. They see young couples with their babies and long for a decent married existence. Judge Lewis, in his courtroom, is sternly sentencing a criminal who is pleading for mercy. A second judge enters the room and is invited to the bench as a matter of courtesy. He whispers to Judge Lewis in favor of the criminal, but Lewis is firm and sends the prisoner away condemned to the limit. Court adjourns and the two judges depart. They go down the courthouse steps and walk away to the park, where they see Bob and Mae. The second judge recognizes Bob and stops him. The judge asks him questions and Bob replies that he is behaving himself. Bob is eager to get away. Alone with Mae, Bob explains that the judge is the one that paroled him after his last fight. Back at work in the dive. Graves becomes offensive to Mae. He follows her to her room and is followed by Bob. A fight occurs in which Mae shoots Graves. Bob disappears, fearing the result of his parole if he should not obey the judge. Mae is to be tried before Judge Lewis. She is assigned a young attorney to defend her. The attorney sees her in her cell and gets her story. He can find no trace of Bob, who, however, keeps himself posted in hiding. The young attorney has secured from Mae, however, a locket given to her by her dead mother when she was a little child. The locket has a photo of her mother with the address of a photographer in a country town. The attorney visits the town, finds the old photographer, and is directed to Old Man Aitken as one who can tell about the woman of the photo. Aitken shows great emotion when he sees the photo, and on being told of Mae's coming trial before Lewis, shows great eagerness to go with the attorney. The trial is commenced, and the attorney admits the killing, but pleads self-defense and the girl's irresponsibility. He places her on the stand, and she tells her story. The judge is cold and relentless. She is asked on cross examination, "Where is this man Bob?" She doesn't know. Bob, however, has crept into the back of the courtroom. He presents himself and is examined. He corroborates Mae, but the judge, recognizing him as the boy of the park, discredits his testimony by asking him, "Are you not a paroled prisoner?" Bob admits it, and the effect on the jury is obvious. Mae is found guilty, with a recommendation for mercy. On being brought up for sentence, the attorney calls Aitken to prove the girl's irresponsibility. The prosecuting attorney jumps to his feet and objects. The judge is about to rule out Aitken's testimony, when Mae's attorney interposes, "It will not be necessary to mention the name of the father of this defendant, but I will ask the witness to identify this photograph as the girl's mother." The portrait of the locket is passed to the judge. He conceals his emotion with difficulty. Mae's attorney proceeds, "I will prove by this witness that the defendant's birth and early life are responsible." Aitken then tells his story, fading back to Mary Alden and Lewis, their love, the locket, Lewis' desertion to follow his career, sending her a letter telling her of his decision, the baby's birth, and the disappearance of mother and child. After the story the judge faints, court is adjourned, and the judge is carried out. The next day another judge is on the bench: he who had paroled Bob. He suspends sentence on Mae and she and Bob go away free. Judge Lewis is convalescent at his home in the country. Aitken brings Mae and Bob to him and he expresses his interest in them and determination to devote his life to his daughter.
