Sodom and Gomorrah

1923-03-26

When the old multimillionaire Jackson Harber wants to marry the young model Mary, she hesitates, but her mother convinces her that this is her chance to lead a life in luxury and leisure. The engagement is celebrated with an extravagant party at his estate, which is a gigantic palace and park in oriental style. His son Eduard arrives from Cambridge, accompanied by a priest, who is his tutor. The priest is disgusted by the bacchanalian reveling and womanizing going on everywhere. Mary's adorer, the sculptor Harry Lighton, tries to convince her to break the engagement. When she refuses, he shoots himself and is seriously injured. Mary falls asleep and is transported in her dream to the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In the dream she sees herself as the wife of Lot, leaving her husband to play a central role in the excessive rites of the goddess Astarte. An angel arrives and leads Lot and his wife out of Sodom, just when the city starts to collapse. Lot's wife cannot resist looking back, and is because of her disobedience converted into a pillar of salt. The dream opens the eyes of Mary, and when she wakens, she leaves the party and hastens to Harry in the hospital.