Eleanor marries the wealthy aristocrat Tristan solely to preserve her destitute family from ruin, only for Tristan to brand her a mercenary gold-digger. For years, he subjects her to bitter domestic neglect, freezing her funds while flaunting his cruel mistress before society to erode Eleanor's quiet dignity.
The cruelty reaches a boiling point when Tristan orders a feverish Eleanor into a howling mountain blizzard to retrieve a discarded necklace for his lover. Miraculously surviving the freezing ordeal, Eleanor drags herself before the royal magistrate, unveiling financial abuse in open court to win total emancipation and establish a charity for impoverished mothers.
