The Toll of the Sea

“For every joy the sea casts up, it takes a toll of twice that joy in sorrow.”

A young woman named Lotus Flower (Anna May Wong) finds an American, Allen Carver (Kenneth Harlan), washed up on a Chinese shore and carries him to safety. They fall in love, and then Allen begins to have second thoughts. Chester M. Franklin's film is a variation on Madama Butterfly, and it is about how one person can give everything while the other holds back part of himself.