THE STORY: Eva Harold, a lonely, small-town girl, is struggling to get on in New York. She is pretty, well brought up and admired by several men, one of whom, a young lawyer, David Browning, she hopes to marry, as soon as he disentangles himself from an unhappy marriage. One night a middle-aged millionaire who is infatuated by her comes to her apartment to try to persuade her to run off with him. While he is pleading with her, he suffers a heart attack and dies—but not before he hands her a new will leaving his entire estate to her. The dead man’s wife contests the will and spreads such unpleasant publicity about Eva that in order to establish her innocence, she is forced to defend the will. The wife’s attorney, Martin Carew, a brilliant but dissolute man, puts Eva under continuous pressure to settle the case; and in the course of their long duel he becomes increasingly interested in her. Eva is finally vindicated and faces the happy prospect of possessing both money and a good name. But then another complication arises: The dead man has cheated the government on taxes for years, and his widow threatens exposure unless Eva agrees to buy her silence. Eva is forced to choose between abandoning her principles or giving up all she has fought for—and also between her fiance, David Browning, and his adversary, Carew. It is upon her decision that the final resolution of the play turns.
