The Dormant Power

Christine Brent, living with her father in a small Texas town, is wooed by Maurice Maxwell, an unscrupulous New York businessman. Christine rejects Maxwell's advances, befriending instead Carl Randolph, a young man who seeks refuge in her cabin after shooting a Mexican for insulting the American flag. Christine gives Carl money and advises him to go East, which he does. Left helpless after her father is injured in a crippling accident, Christine agrees to marry Maxwell so that her father can live in comfort. Brent, however, demoralized, kills himself and soon after, Maxwell and Christine move to New York. Stung by her husband's constant abuse, Christine learns to hate Maxwell, and when Maxwell hires Carl, now a successful attorney, as his counsel, Christine feels her old love rekindled. Unscrupulous as ever, Maxwell robs the inventor Brinkeroff of a valuable patent, and then murders him. Brinkeroff's wife Metta, suspecting Maxwell of her husband's murder, secures a job in the Maxwell home to obtain evidence against him. Her prudence is rewarded when she overhears Maxwell admit to the crime, and outraged, she kills him but is acquitted by a sympathetic jury. All obstacles now cleared from their path, Christine and Carl begin a new life together.