- Norma Ellis is humiliated for five years by her husband, Dr. Hugh Ellis, who believes that no housewife is capable of handling household finances, and she finally rebels, proclaiming American women are more often regarded as bonds-women than wives, asks for a joint bank account. When her husband scoffs, Norma renounces all household duties. Ellis begins to acquiesce as the combined responsibilities become overwhelming. Meanwhile, his brother Ned, a cocaine addict, is attacked by a drug-crazed girl, who tries to blind him with acid. During Ned's lengthy surgery, performed by Ellis, Norma discovers that payment is due on a stock option that promises to make them rich. She borrows from David Power, a family friend who is trying to cure drug addiction. After Ned is stopped from getting more cocaine by Power, he tells the doctor that Power and Norma are having an affair. Ellis drives her and her baby away, but after Power cures Ned, he confesses his lie. The couple reconcile and open a joint account.—Pamela Short
- After five years of repressed protest, Norma, wife of Dr. Hugh Ellis, a moderately successful physician, suddenly voices denunciation regarding the average position of the American wife in the average American home today wherein she is compelled to be entirely answerable to her husband in expenditures for household and petty needs. Dr. Ellis had insisted upon sharing the responsibilities of conducting the house, scanning the bills from butchers, bakers and grocers, and made it his personal business to see that these bills were corrected as he thought they should be, and argued and quibbled with tradesmen generally. His wine, in desperation, finally declares that she and other women "are treated like bondwomen and not wives." She asks for at least a joint bank account and presents the question to her husband from a sentimental standpoint as well as from a practical viewpoint, citing as an instance her own life with her father who, as an author, was unsuccessful because of domestic responsibilities he insisted upon sharing, and not until he was relieved of these household worries by Norma did he achieve anything like success. Her argument, however, was in vain. Dr. Ellis insisted that he was the best judge of how his money was to be spent, and scoffed at the idea of permitting his wife to share in a joint bank account. After being humiliated by her husband and embarrassed before her friends because of her lack of independence in money matters, she finally compels him to take charge of the house, and, in attempting to attend to his practice and manage the household affairs, he is very often interrupted and annoyed by grocery bills and other domestic affairs which he could be relieved of if the bank account were a joint one. Just about the time the physician is convinced that his wife's theory is correct, his younger brother, Ned, who, unknown to him, has become addicted to the drug habit, meets with a savage attack by a drug-crazed girl in a notorious dance hall, who attempts to blind him with acid. His life is in the balance and at the very hour when the physician is performing an operation to save his brother, Norma realizes that her husband has neglected to make a final payment on some mining stock which had become valuable since he had obtained an option on it and now promised to make him independently rich. This option expired within a few hours on that very day, and she phoned, asking for an extension of a few hours in time, explaining that her husband was engaged in a surgical operation upon which his brother's life depended, but her plea is curtly refused by the bank officials holding the stock in escrow. Realizing that to interrupt the operation would endanger the young brother's life and perhaps mean death, and that if the money was not paid it meant certain tremendous financial loss to them, Norma asks a mutual friend for financial aid, which is given, and Norma saves the day. Through this act her husband grows suspicious and is led to believe by his young brother (made irresponsible by drugs) that Norma is unfaithful, and he orders his wife from his home. Then Ned, in a fit of remorse, realizing that he is responsible for the separation of his brother and sister-in-law, is persuaded to confess all by a friend of the family, David Power, who has secretly cured the boy of the drug habit. A reconciliation is brought about through the confession, and Dr. Ellis is convinced that the average wife should be the average husband's partner in all things. The bank account is changed to Dr. Hugh Ellis and Norma Ellis. Other concessions are made by the doctor, and a problem that is vital in every home in this country is solved satisfactorily.—Moving Picture World synopsis
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