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This romance featured respected old-timers (Pauline Frederick in a starring role and Leah Baird as screenwriter) and a fresh up-and-comer (pretty WAMPAS baby star Marion Nixon). Jean Valyon (Richard Tucker) is sent to Devil's Island to serve a life sentence. After several years, he is allowed to marry his sweetheart, Jeanette Picto (Frederick). They have a son, Leon, who studies to be a surgeon. The couple hopes that Leon (played as an adult by George Lewis) will be able to escape to France, but Valyon dies before the young man finishes his studies. Leon falls in love with fellow prisoner Rose Marie (Nixon), and because he successfully performs a brain operation on a deranged convict, he wins a pardon for both himself and his mother. He is unable to see Rose Marie before he leaves, so he asks the Commandant (Harry Northrup) to give her a message. Instead of handing her the message, however, the Commandant tries to have his way with the girl. In Paris, Jeanette and Leon obtain a pardon for Rose Marie. The news is wired to Devil's Island just in time to save her from killing herself rather than submit to the Commandant's pressure.