The Purchase Price

Singer Joan Gordon breaks off her relationship with married gangster Eddie Fields in order to marry Don Leslie, a man from a good family, only to discover that Don's father has had her investigated and has found out about Eddie. Don no longer wants to marry her, but rather than go back to Eddie, Joan runs away to Montreal, where she takes another singing job using an assumed name. Before long, one of Eddie's men recognizes her. Learning that the hotel maid has used her picture to meet a man through a matrimonial service, Joan decides to take her place. She travels to North Dakota and marries farmer Jim Gilson. The first night, put off by his awkward love-making, Joan insists that they sleep separately. Later, Joan tries to apologize, but Jim does not respond. Nonetheless, they continue to live and work together. When Jim's farm is to be repossessed, another farmer, Bull McDowell, offers to buy it if Joan will keep house for him. Jim hopes to hang on somehow, because he has developed some excellent wheat seed that he believes will recover his losses. On New Year's Eve, Joan, who has come to love Jim, tries to mend the rift between them, but Jim still is bitter. Joan rides out to visit a woman who has just given birth and stays to cook a meal and clean up a little. After making her way through a snowstorm, she returns to find that Jim has taken in a man who became lost in the storm. By coincidence, the man is Eddie. Eddie tries to drag Joan away, and when Jim sees that they have a past, she tries to explain. Jim, however, is convinced that she is worthless. Eddie asks her to leave, but Joan protests that she loves Jim and asks Eddie for a loan to help save the farm. After Eddie gives her the money, she secretly pays off the loan and asks the bank to write Jim a letter saying they have postponed his payments until after the harvest. She works alongside Jim, planting and harvesting the crops, but he will not forgive her. For revenge against Joan for her efforts to save Jim's farm, McDowell sets the harvest on fire at night. Joan sees the blaze and rouses Jim. Together they put out the fire, and Jim finally admits that he loves Joan.more