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Melodrama. Fanny, illegitimate daughter of a cabinet minister, was brought up by foster parents who ran a wine saloon and cabaret in the 'seventies. When her foster father was killed in a brawl by Lord Manderstoke, Fanny went to her real father's home to become a servant — to discover that Manderstoke was the lover of her father's wife. The wife, wanting divorce, threatens to expose the truth of Fanny's parenthood, whereupon Fanny's father commits suicide. But by that time Fanny and her father's secretary have fallen in love. They set up house together, then go to Paris for a holiday. Here again Manderstoke enters as an evil influence in Fanny's life, quarrels with her lover and fights a duel with him. Manderstoke is killed and Fanny's lover still critically wounded when the film ends.

This is a polite version by Doreen Montgomery of the Michael Sadleir novel. With meticulous period work, the production departments have achieved highly. The Asquith directing is clean cut, sure and sensitively evocative of his period atmosphere - evocative, too, of unusually fine work from practically every member of a well-chosen cast. Phyllis Calvert, as Fanny, is gentle but capable of determined action in the interests of her love. James Mason strives mightily and in the main successfully with the difficult melodramatics of the Manderstoke role. Margaretta Scott's portrait of the cabinet minister's wife is outstanding in its hard, brittle clarity.

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