A Million for Love

The infant daughter of a wealthy couple is thought to be lost at sea, but she survives and is raised by a poor family.

Michael Faversham, a puritanical minister determined to stomp out immorality, orders one of his parishioners, Rose Gibbard, to confess in public that she is the mother of an illegitimate child, knowing that it will bring shame and condemnation to her. Meanwhile, he is consumed with desire for another of his parishioners, the lovely Audrey Lesden. One day the two of them find themselves alone on a deserted island, and the attraction of Faversham and the married Audrey for each other is too difficult for them to resist. Complications ensue.

The film is a family drama set against the backdrop of the First World War and Latvia's freedom struggle.

James Oliver, has a delicate little wife about to become a mother. Their family doctor advises Oliver that he must not become engaged in any physical encounter or get hurt in any way or it would kill her. Soon thereafter Oliver is at the bar when a rough patron of the place invites him to drink. Oliver declines and on insistence by the rough, asks for soda water, which the rough throws in Oliver's face in disgust. Forced to fight or acknowledge himself a coward, Oliver admits cowardice. They all jeer him, when an old man a quiet spectator of the scene, tells the following story visioned in and out in pictures. He takes for his text the statement that, "No man who will admit that he is a coward for a principal is one". He depicts the story of a young man, Thomas Marsh by name, who had a feeling of fear born in his physical being.

Tommie Burke is a tomboy, and she can braid a hackamore, rope a steer, ride a broncho, or do any of the things cowboys usually accomplish. Arnold Blake, son of the wealthiest cattleman, is her companion on many wild rides and innocent escapades. Away back in the back bay district of Boston, Charles Percival is starting for the west, with out the farewells of an uncle and two stern maiden aunts, who feel that he has disgraced them forever by his reckless habits. About the time he arrives at the Burke ranch, the latter receives his New York sister and her daughter Mabel.

John Dale runs a small, decent road house on a main trail between distant towns. Nell is his right-hand man. Nell has a half-witted brother, Zeb. She keeps their house and tends the small bar in Dale's absence. Zeb is trusted only with simple, odd jobs about the place. Nell is self-reliant and well able to hold the guests of the place at their proper distance. She is devoted to her incompetent brother. Bart Trevis and young Remsen are rivals for her favor. Trevis is favored and Remsen is not. Through circumstantial evidence Trevis is involved in a crime, Though innocent, he dare not risk standing trial. He escapes to the road house, tells Nell of the fix he is in and asks her to jump the country with him. He remains hidden there for the day, Zeb nearly betrays him while the pursuing sheriff and his son also stop at the road house. But in the end Zeb makes a supreme sacrifice and Nell runs away with Bart at nightfall.

Mojava Matt realizes that he is slipping away from God, when one Sunday morning he cannot even remember the Lord's prayer. He goes as far as "give us this day our daily bread," and stopped there in self-abasement. Packing his burro, he deserts his camp and starts back toward civilization, to find somebody who can tell him the next words.

Matchin' Jim comes to the "Flying A" ranch and is employed as one of its cowboys. His name is well justified, as he has a mania for matching coins. Not far from the ranch lives Ellings, an old placer miner. He has a daughter, Phyllis, whose sole delight in life seems to be in caring for a puny rose bush that she has planted at the side of her father's cabin. By diligent nursing she has managed to bring it to such a stage that it produces a single blossom. As Matchin' Jim is wandering near the cabin one day, hunting, a wild shot from his gun narrowly misses Phyllis and cuts from the rose bush its one lone flower. She calls to Jim, and when he comes to her she points out the damage that he has done. But Jim only grins and tells her that he'll match her to see whether she is going to be mad at him or not.

To protect the family name, a man of morals and integrity marries a young woman his brother got pregnant. The woman continues her loose ways with no regard to her new husband begging her to protect his honor.

Jack is just a cowboy on the Gilman cattle ranch. Born and bred of the west, he is broad-mined and easy going. In direct contrast to him is Frances, a girl of the east, who comes to the west with Gilman's daughter. Frances has been born and brought up in wealth and culture and does not understand the cowboy who refuses to cater to her whim but who tries to dominate her. Later, when he proposes to her, she accepts him. She leaves for the east, promising to marry him when her course at school is finished. Jack sets about to build a cabin for their home. While at her home in the east, Frances is constantly being urged by Raymond Welton, a club man, to forget the rough cowboy, and to marry him.

Brian Leonard is a millionaire whose sole occupation is the amassing of wealth. He is cold, hard, and the element of love has been almost extinguished. In this environment, his motherless, loveless daughter, Bona, grew up to womanhood.

Jim, a cowboy, comes to town with the boys of the Lazy B, and stops at the Last Chance Saloon. One of the girls of the dancehall is Madge. Hardy, owner of a distant ranch, comes to her and offers her a position as housekeeper, which proposition she spurns. Jim has a flirtation with Madge, and she interests him. Late that night, Jim, well under the influence of liquor, chances to meet her again. On the impulse of the moment he asks her to marry him.