The Day of Reckoning

• Watchlist

Deceived by Carl Burton, a gambler and sporting character, into believing that they have been honorably married, Martha True, an innocent young woman, is brutally left by the designing man to bear her disgrace alone. When her child is born, she loves it with super-maternal passion, but in order to secure employment it is necessary to place the child in the care of a woman friend, and her only recompense in life is the weekend visits made to see her baby. Unable to stand the strain of work and the sorrow of being separated from her child, Martha is overcome while behind the counter of a department store and is taken to a hospital by the kind-hearted bachelor owner of the business, who does all he can for her comfort. As the girl is recovering, her employer is a daily visitor to the hospital and gradually falls in love with her. When John Walton proposes a great temptation was put before the girl, but she finally decided to marry him and give her child a home by having the woman who is caring for her baby send a letter which Martha has written herself, asking that the child be sent to Martha's care as her friend is dying. The letter comes in due time and the big-hearted husband welcomes the idea of having a child in the house. In the meantime, Carl Burton learns of the deception played on the husband and sends an adventuress, Rita Marr, with a letter, threatening to expose Martha to her husband unless her prosperity is shared with the blackmailing pair. Martha, fearing that her husband will discover her secret and never forgive her, decides to take her child and leave the house, but in the midst of her preparations her husband returns. At first he is loath to forgive her, but after hearing the whole story, his love for his wife and adopted child is too great and all are united in a happy home, much to the discomfort of the blackmailers.