Summary
A chrysalis of burgeoning innocence, Pauline D’Arcy finds her transition into womanhood hijacked by the calculated benevolence of a seasoned seducer named Abbott. Cloaked in the guise of a philanthropic mentor, Abbott manipulates Pauline’s thirst for intellectual elevation, securing her as his mistress with the hollow promise of a university education and eventual matrimony. This Faustian bargain propels Pauline into the hallowed halls of academia, where her latent literary genius flourishes into a clandestine masterpiece—a novel that mirrors her own trauma, published anonymously to staggering acclaim. As she achieves financial sovereignty and academic honors, the spectral presence of Abbott returns, demanding his pound of flesh. Pauline, now emboldened by her own agency, rejects her tormentor, only to find solace in the arms of the noble Richard Adams. However, the shadow of her past materializes at a high-society gala in the form of Tom Dare, a blackmailer who weaponizes her literary confession against her. In a defiant subversion of Victorian shame, Pauline publicly claims her narrative, asserting her right to a future unburdened by past victimization. The subsequent revelation—that her former violator and her current betrothed are father and son—propels the narrative toward a harrowing confrontation where the cycle of abuse is finally severed, not by the play’s original tragic suicide, but by a resilient, cinematic embrace of survival.
Synopsis
Pauline D'Arcy just emerging from girlhood, meets and is attracted by a man many years her senior whom she knows by the name of Abbott. Abbott fascinates the inexperienced girl and makes her his mistress. Endowed with a keen desire for knowledge, Pauline has yielded herself, partly influenced by his promises that she shall have an education. He has promised to send her to the University, assist her to establish herself in a literary career, and then marry her. Pauline, accordingly enters a university for women. She becomes a favorite and develops her literary talent so that as graduation approaches, she has already completed a novel founded on her own experience. It is accepted and published anonymously, quickly becomes a "best seller" and everyone is eager to learn the identity of the author. The success of her book has made her financially independent and when, on her graduation day, Abbott proposes to take her away with him, she rebels and begs him to go his way and let her go hers. Pauline meets a young man named Richard Adams, and an affection quickly ripens into love. They are both invited to a house party given by Mrs. Dare. During the party, Richard Adams presses his suit, but Pauline gives him little encouragement, for her secret restrains her. A rival for her favor develops in Kitty's brother, Tom Dare. Tom has found out that Pauline wrote the novel that has caused such a sensation and shrewdly suspects that she is the heroine of her own book. He tries to force Pauline into illicit relations with him by threatening disclosure of her story to the assembled guests. She defies him, and that night in the presence of all the guests, Tom makes the public accusation. Driven to admit the authorship of the book, Pauline, nevertheless, defends, in a spirited speech, a woman's right to redeem herself and make a worthy future out of an unfortunate past. The guests are divided between admiration and horror when Richard Adams comes to the rescue and turns the tide into a complete triumph for Pauline, by stating they are going to marry. Loving him as she does, Pauline has not the heart to draw back, but she feels that she cannot allow him to marry her until he knows all the truth. When in an agonizing confession, she lays bare her soul and tells Richard of her trials, he takes her in his arms, tells her that he honors her truth and nobility and is more than ever determined to make her his wife. When Mr. Abbott, her former lover appears and demands an interview, Pauline faces him fiercely and demands why he returns to trouble her. She spurns him and tells him she is about to marry a man whom she loves. He threatens to find him out and reveal her past. She tells him that has already been done. In the final scene the men come face to face and Pauline discovers for the first time that they are father and son. In the original Pauline kills herself; in the film Pauline and Richard "fade out" in fond embrace.
