For the film fan making the case that silents were truly golden, The Red Lily is a color that serves them well. Hue plays an important part in this "black-and-white" classic, using sepia, red and orange to convey a complexity of mood and emotion. After the death of her father, Marise La Noue (Enid Bennett) can find no safe haven, so she runs off to Paris with Jean Leonnec, the mayor's son (Ramon Novarro). Seeking a better life in Paris, Jean and Marise plan to meet at a specific time and place. When circumstances intervene, the two lovers miss their rendezvous, never reunite and are destined to lead separate lives that become more and more degrading. Marise turns to prostitution and Jean succumbs to the delightful debauchery of a thief named Bo-Bo (Wallace Beery in one of his earliest roles). Heartthrob Navarro and delicate Bennett make a magical combination in this deeply moving tale of fate, tragedy and redemption.

After the death of her father, Marise La Noue (Enid Bennett) can find no safe haven, so she runs off to Paris with Jean Leonnec, the mayor's son (Ramon Novarro). Before they can be married, however, they are separated. Marise sinks from working as a waitress to toiling as scrubwoman to the ultimate degradation as a woman of the streets. Leonnec, meanwhile, falls in with a gang of thieves. While he is being chased by gendarmes, he finds Marise and is horrified at what she has become. Even though he knocks her down in his frenzy, Marise nurses him through his breakdown. The police finally catch up with him and he serves a prison term. While he is incarcerated, Marise turns her life around. Leonnec emerges from prison a changed man and reunites with Marise. Director Fred Niblo was married to leading lady Enid Bennett.