A Poet from the Sea(1927)

George Bell, a wild young man, lives with his rancher father, Thomas Bell, in Paradise Valley, California. When George sells his father's favorite horse, Mr. Bell turns him out, and George becomes a grain salesman in St. Louis. Meanwhile, Polly Martin lives with her father Bill, an ex-businessman who has sunk to day-labor because of his addiction to alcohol. Bill frequently abuses Polly, and when he falls to his death from a high girder, Polly becomes a nurse in the Salvation Army in St. Louis. George falls in love with Polly after he saves her from the advances of a drunk, but she will not marry him because of his wild past.

In a Southern town, Don Morley is apparently the sole witness to a gunfight during which his friend, Lee Dillingham, badly wounds Sheely. To avoid testifying against Lee, Don leaves town, but after he is gone, Lee double-crosses Don and blames him for the shooting. Then, Don's sweetheart, Miss Lady, heartbroken to learn that Don is a criminal, marries the elderly Professor Querrington. To take her mind off her mundane marriage, Miss Lady befriends a mute boy and pays for an operation that restores his speech. The professor dies, and soon after Don, unaware of his alleged guilt, returns to town to find himself charged with Lee's crime.

When penniless Westie Phillips briefly meets wealthy Martha Gorham, he falls in love, but Martha forgets the encounter. Harry Arnold, courting Martha, invites her out sailing and arranges to have the yacht wrecked near an uncharted island so that he can be alone with her until rescuers arrive. Meanwhile, without knowing Martha is on board, Westie secures a position on the yacht.

Eddie Haskins, a wisecracking young man, teams up with two ham-acrobats known as 'Bugs & Sunny', and ,when they are all kicked out of a vaudeville theater in California, they enlist in the U. S. Cavalry. Eddie falls in love with Dorothy Clark, the daughter of a sergeant and, following a moonlight tryst, they are discovered by Sergeant Hank Darby who himself is in love with Dorothy. They have a fist-fight in which Eddie comes out second best. When Darby is reprimanded for fighting with an enlisted man, the troopers incorrectly think that Eddie squealed on him, and they punish him with a conspiracy of silence. Dorothy also rejects him. Eddie has a problem. Maybe a fire will break out in the stables and he can rescue Sergeant Darby.

The quiet life style of Ruth Heck and her brother Lem, who belong to a religious sect called the Seekers, is disrupted when a judge imprisons Lem for a crime he did not commit.

The Government of the fictional country Norland has unleashed a war with the neighboring Galikania and is suffering one defeat after another. A group of conspirators who were dissatisfied with this state of affairs, led by the Social Democrat Frank Frey arrange a coup to overthrew the emperor of Norland. But the working class does not like the new order either. Workers expose Frank Frey's policy of continuing the war and a revolution breaks out in the country. The leader of the socialist revolution becomes a mechanic of the name Franz Stark.

At a mountain resort, Kenneth Scott falls in love with Marie Beauchamp, an older woman who merely amuses herself with him. When she deserts him to open a roadhouse, he sadly leaves the mountains and, in the company of an old wandering poet named "Doc" Podden, travels to a little village in the woods.

When housewife Trina wins the lottery, her comfortable life with her dentist husband John slowly deteriorates, in part by her own increasing paranoia and partly by the machinations of villainous acquaintance Marcus.

Left alone and penniless after her father dies, Eileen Orton attempts suicide. Douglas Seward, who must be married to obtain the position he seeks, befriends Eileen and offers to support her if she will pose as his wife.

Based on the play Miss Julie by August Strindberg.