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Tom Ransome, a devil-may-care philanderer, has
spent the last several years in India, embellishing his reputation and
watching the rains come and go. Tom's reputation fascinates Fern
Simon, the innocent young daughter of American missionaries, but Tom thinks
of Fern as a young girl. During a party held at the Maharajah's
palace, Tom is reunited with an old flame who is now Lady Edwina Esketh,
having married the wealthy but borish Lord Esketh. Tom sees his own
shallowness reflected in Edwina, and becomes alarmed when she decides to
make a conquest of his friend, Major Rama Safti. However, the major's
commitment to his work as a doctor makes him immune to Edwina's charms.
Meanwhile, as the coming of the rains abates the heat, Tom begins to fall in
love with Fern.
Then, one night, disaster strikes the state of
Ranchipur when an earthquake destroys the dams and releases flood waters
that smash everything in their path. Lord Esketh perishes in the
disaster, as does the Maharajah. The courageous Maharani then presses
Tom into service as her aide-de-camp, and he asks Fern to join him. As
a plague sweeps the city, the major fights valiantly to contain it, and
Edwina volunteers to help in the hospital. Her selflessness causes the
major to fall in love with her but, when she becomes a victim of the plague,
he is unable to save her. The major finally vanquishes the plague, and
as Tom and Fern are married, he ascends to the position of Maharajah of the
rebuilt state, but faces a lonely future before him. |
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