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In this Pollyanna-ish story, Lila Lee plays Mary Lenox, who is orphaned when her parents die during a cholera epidemic in India. Archibald Craven (Spottiswoode Aitken) is appointed her guardian, and she is sent to England to live with him. Craven is a crotchety old man who has never been the same since his wife died in childbirth. His son, Colin (Dick Rosson), is a cripple -- or at least, that's what Craven's doctor brother, Warren days. But the doctor is trying to drive Colin to an early grave, figuring that when both Archibald and his son die, he'll wind up with the family fortune. When Mary brings her sunny self to this situation, she stirs things up. First she convinces Colin that he's better off without the heavy brace his uncle is making him wear, then she talks the help into opening up the walled-in garden that has been sealed since the death of Mrs. Craven. The doctor, seeing that Colin is beginning to thrive, decides to poison him -but both Mary and Colin see him put the poison in the drinking water. Mary goes for help, but gets stuck in a bog. Colin saves her, and the doctor, his plans thwarted, takes off. Craven becomes a whole lot less crotchety and Colin enters the British army and weds Mary. This picture was based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.