Summary
In the bucolic New England hamlet of Bedford, Ruth, a paragon of local charm, finds herself at a moral crossroads. Though courted by the village’s earnest minister, her affections are irrevocably captured by Alec Peters, a dashing brakeman whose transient lifestyle offers a tantalizing escape from provincial strictures. Defying her parents' stern interdiction, Ruth absconds with Peters to the labyrinthine metropolis of New York, lured by his hollow promise of matrimony. The anticipated nuptials never materialize, and her paramour, a man of fickle passions, soon casts her adrift into the unforgiving urban wilderness, leaving her destitute and alone. Meanwhile, back in Bedford, her mother languishes, succumbing to a debilitating illness wrought by relentless worry. The compassionate minister, tracing Ruth's path to a charitable institution, implores her return. A tearful reconciliation with her parents ensues, yet the narrow-minded community, steeped in unforgiving judgment, rebuffs her every attempt at reintegration. Even the minister's impassioned sermon, invoking Christ's boundless clemency towards Mary Magdalene, fails to quell the tide of calumny. Faced with such entrenched bigotry, the minister, unwilling to serve a congregation devoid of true charity, forsakes his post, embarking on a new life with Ruth, a defiant testament to their shared conviction in a more merciful existence.
Synopsis
Ruth, the belle of Bedford village in New England, is loved by the minister, but she becomes infatuated with Alec Peters, the brakeman on the train which she rides to school. After her parents order her to stop seeing Peters, he promises to marry her, and they elope to New York. They never marry, so when he tires of her, he throws her out. Penniless, Ruth is forced to survive on the streets. In Bedford her mother becomes deathly ill from worrying. The minister finds Ruth at a charity home and begs her to return. Her parents gladly forgive her, but the community will not tolerate her presence. The minister urges Ruth to rejoin the choir, but they refuse to sing with her. Although the minister preaches charity to all and relates the story of Christ's forgiveness of Magdalene, the gossip and ill feeling persist. Rather than serve bigots, the minister leaves town with Ruth to start their lives anew.
