AllMovie

This Sessue Hayakawa film was based on the Lloyd Osborne novel East Is East. T'Su Wong Shih (Hayakawa), a Chinese prince, is in love with Qwan Yin, the gardener's daughter (Gloria Payton). His uncle, however, demands that he stick to custom and enter into a marriage that has already been arranged. When Shih refuses, the uncle sends him to America to be educated, hoping that this will bring him around. The young prince marries Yin before he leaves, and keeps her in his mind the whole time he is away. When he finally graduates from the university, he visits San Francisco's Chinatown with some pals and happens on an auction of a Chinese slave girl. The girl turns out to be Yin. To save her, Shih bids five thousand dollars, which he doesn't have. He convinces the auctioneer to give him some time and manages to win the money in a lottery. A gangster forces the auctioneer to hand over Yin to him instead. Shih goes after the gangster and gives him a thrashing to retrieve his girl.