There isn't much of a story here. A sailor promises to wed the girl who loves him, then goes away to other ports and forgets about her while she waits. When he finally returns, she has fallen ill and is dying and he pretends he has come back to marry her, to make her last few minutes happier.
What makes this piece so very interesting is the way Griffith has it photographed. The outdoor scenes show huddled masses of beached boats, set to make a constrained circle of safety around the sailors; another shows Kate Bruce, her hair streaming in the wind, while the waves roll moodily to the right. He ends scenes with slow fades to black. This is not so much one of his story films as an exercise in poetry, and he knows how to make the silent cinema sing.
What makes this piece so very interesting is the way Griffith has it photographed. The outdoor scenes show huddled masses of beached boats, set to make a constrained circle of safety around the sailors; another shows Kate Bruce, her hair streaming in the wind, while the waves roll moodily to the right. He ends scenes with slow fades to black. This is not so much one of his story films as an exercise in poetry, and he knows how to make the silent cinema sing.