Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley are lovers. When the Civil War begins, he must go to battle. Finally, after three years in the field, he is wounded in the field and reported as dead.
It's another very interesting effort by Weber and Smalley. The movie is based on a popular and sentimental song of the day by Ethelbert Nevin. This was by no means the first movie based on a poem; however, by restricting the image to a circle and placing inside a rosary, they clearly intended this as no simple gimmick, but an attempt to contrast the words of titles with the actions shown and illustrate the thoughts behind the poem.
It's a bit of a stretch, but there were occasional attempts to vary the shape of the image by use of mattes back to the 19th century, rather than using set design to construct an interior composition. Smalley and Weber would use a different visual structure in the same year's SUSPENSE.
The sentimentality of the film does not appeal to me, but don't let that stop you. Certainly the critics of the time were fulsome in their praise; even with my own taste I must admit it is a well-thought-out and interestingly produced movie.
