收购之争

Joan Gordon (Barbara Stanwyck), a New York torch singer who has been performing since age 15, has left her wealthy criminal boyfriend, Eddie Fields (Lyle Talbot), for upstanding citizen Don Leslie (Hardie Albright). However, Don's father has found out about her relationship with Eddie; she and Don break off their engagement, and she decides to leave town rather than return to Eddie. In Montreal, she changes her name and resumes performing; not long thereafter, one of Eddie's men recognizes her and informs his boss. Unwilling to return to him, she trades places with her hotel's maid (Leila Bennett), who had used Joan's picture when corresponding with a North Dakota farmer in search of a mail-order bride. Offering the maid $100 (about 7 weeks' wages) for the farmer's address, Joan sets out to become the wife of Jim Gilson (George Brent), with only a vague idea of all the hardships of farm life during the height of the Great Depression. 　　Jim and Joan's relationship gets off to a rocky start; on their first night, she rejects his advances and forces him to sleep elsewhere. In the morning, she apologizes but he keeps his distance. Over time she falls in love with him, but he remains aloof. Meanwhile, he's informed that he'll lose his land if he can't pay his overdue mortgage. He has developed a great strain of wheat and is sure it will bring a profit, but he has no way to keep foreclosure at bay long enough to plant and harvest a crop. A neighboring farmer, Bull McDowell (David Landau), offers to buy Jim's land in exchange for Joan's company, but Jim is unwilling to make such a bargain and thereby makes an enemy of Bull. 　　A little later, Joan -- who has become a very capable farmer's wife -- visits a neighbor who just gave birth with only her adolescent daughter by her side. Joan cleans the home, prepares food, turns an old dress into diapers, and calms the frightened daughter (Anne Shirley). She braves a snowstorm to return home, where Jim has taken in a man who lost his way in the storm -- Eddie. She pretends not to know him, but Eddie quickly tries to take her with him. Jim, angry at Joan because of her complicated past (and because he's jealous, though he can't yet admit that he cares about her), tells her to go with Eddie. She refuses and later asks Eddie privately for a loan to save Jim's land. 　　The loan (which Jim thinks is an extension from the bank) enables them to stay on the farm until after the harvest. She continues to stand by him, but he remains distant. Then one night Bull torches part of the harvested-but-not-sold crop, and Joan and Jim fight to save it. Joan is injured, but they succeed -- and her determination and dedication finally break through Jim's reserve.