Anna Moore, a naive country girl, is tricked into a sham marriage by Lennox Sanderson, a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock. She gets a job with the Bartlett family and their son David ends up falling for her, but Lennox shows up.

In 1919, D.W. Griffith co-founded United Artists as a way to have more creative control. His films that followed are less famous (and notorious) than his earlier work, but Way Down East, one of his biggest successes, is a true gem, with an unforgettable climax on the ice.