This was Murnau's last completed film. It is the story of a strictly brought up son of a farmer, who comes to the bustling city of Chicago to sell the wheat crop. Here, he meets and fails in love with a waitress who works in a cafe. They marry, and the young man takes her back to Oregon.

The girl, who found her lonely and debased life in Chicago intolerable, soon discovers that life on the farm also has its limitations: in different ways, she is threatened by her in-laws and by the local farm workers