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This drama was based on the novel by William J. Locke. Physician Sylvester Lanyon (H.B. Warner) has such high ideals when it comes to humanity that he looks down on everyone else. He's especially hard on women, and only his memories of his dead wife and mother live up to his beliefs. But while he is living in the country with his father (James O. Barrows) and his father's ward -- Ella De Fries (Claire Adams), who is also Lanyon's sweetheart -- his harsh judgments are put to the test. After a friend of his suffers an accidental death, it is revealed that he had an affair with Lanyon's adored (and now dead) wife. It upsets Lanyon so much that he leaves the country home for London. After a year, he is disturbed to find out that Ella is about to marry the devious Roderick Usher (Donald McDonald). Lanyon is only barely able to halt the wedding plans. When he brings Ella back home, Usher's father (Herbert Greenwood) reveals that he was the first husband of Lanyon's mother, and he divorced her when she ran away with Lanyon's father. With all his false images shattered, Lanyon learns humility and becomes a better person because of it.