Her Story (1920)

Shocked by a newspaper account of an escaped convict being discovered in his wife Betty's room, steel magnate Ralph Ashlyn hears, at her request, the story of her past. Alone in Russia after her father, a ship captain, dies at sea, the young Betty marries Russian agent Oscar Kaplan and moves to New York with him. Soon Kaplan begins to treat Betty cruelly and abandons her after taking up a life of crime. Betty takes a job in a department store that leads her to employment as a governess for Ashlyn's little girl. She sorrowfully declines Ashlyn's proposals of marriage until she discovers that her marriage to Kaplan was a fraud, after which she is finally persuaded to marry Ashlyn and enjoys five years of happiness. On a visit to Sing Sing prison, Betty recognizes Kaplan, now a convict. Later that weekend, Kaplan escapes and attacks Betty in her room at the country home at which she is a guest. Saved by the police, who chase Kaplan away, Betty rushes to her husband to explain. As Betty finishes her story, Ashlyn takes her in his arms.