Her Resale Value

Milly Ainsley returns to visit Jonesville, a Midwest "tank town," after living in a large city in the East and tells her friend, Mary Harris, of the demand there for attractive women to model exquisite gowns. Mary is discontent being the wife of a small town doctor, who, to her dismay, often takes charity cases. When she tells her husband Ted that she is going to leave him, he does not believe her, but the next day, as he is in the middle of an operation, he is told that Mary just called from the railroad station. At his nurse Jane Martin's insistence, Ted continues the operation rather than go to the station and saves the life of Dick Stevens, a prominent banker injured in an automobile crash. In the city, Mary lives with Milly and attracts the attention of Sidney Fletcher, who owns the expensive women's clothing store where Milly models. In Jonesville, after Stevens' personal surgeon from the city, Dr. Lukas, calls the operation perfect, Stevens buys the hospital and makes Ted its president. Three months after Mary's departure, she agrees to Fletcher's desire that she get a divorce and join him on a trip to Bermuda, thinking that he will marry her. She writes to Ted, who leaves for the city immediately, which upsets Jane, who has grown fond of him. Ted tells Mary that he won't contest the divorce, but he punches Fletcher when he meets him. After the divorce is granted, Mary tells Truex, a reporter, about her upcoming marriage to Fletcher, but when Truex interviews Fletcher, he denies the story, saying that he was only playing around. Irritated with Mary, Fletcher tells her that he never mentioned marriage. After the story runs in the newspaper, Fletcher angrily writes Mary a check for $10,000, what he calls "the usual amount," and tells her to leave. She pulls out a gun from a drawer, and Fletcher is shot as they struggle. Ted, in town with Stevens, gets a call for a consultation before police surgeons operate on Fletcher. When he learns that Mary will be charged with first-degree murder if Fletcher dies, Ted volunteers to operate, and although Fletcher nearly does die, Ted succeeds in dislodging the bullet from the wall surrounding his heart. After the operation, Ted returns to Jonesville, where Jane announces that she will resign to marry Stevens, with whom she has fallen in love during his recovery. She sends in an applicant to replace her, and Ted discovers it to be Mary. She begs him to let her work with him, and Ted, happy to have her back, acquiesces.