The Single Standard

Plots: When Arden meets Packy they are instantly smitten with each other and sail to the South Seas on his boat. One day Packy dumps her and she returns home where Tommy waits: He has proposed to her before and still wants to marry her. Wealthy Arden Stuart is bored in a party. After refusing Tommy Hewlett’s marriage proposal, she has her driver drive her to a lonely place, where they make love and return to the party, where she witnesses her chauffeur commit suicide after being fired by her brother. On a rainy day, Arden attends an art exhibition and meets painter and aspiring boxer Packy Cannon. They sail to the South Seas together in his boat, and she falls in love with him. A couple months later, Packy dumps her, brings her back to the city, and heads for China alone. Heartbroken, Arden accepts when Tommy proposes again, and they marry. Three years later, Arden meets Packy again and is torn between love for him and love for her son with Tommy. In the Roaring Twenties the double standard is alive and well: wives stay home playing bridge; husbands party with flappers, then lie about where they’ve been. Arden Stuart wants something else: freedom, equality, and honesty in love. She tries with her chauffeur first, with tragic results. Then, though her long-time friend Tommy Hewlett repeatedly asks her to marry him, she finds what she’s looking for in a spur-of-the-moment encounter with Packy Cannon, a pugilist turned painter who’s sailing off to the South Seas. A few years later, Packy, Tommy, and Arden must sort out love, devotion, and propriety. Can it be done with honesty, or will social standards dictate deceit?