Eleanor marries Tristan to save her bankrupt family, but he mistakes desperation for greed and treats their marriage as a purchase. After cutting off her income and using his mistress to humiliate her, he sends the weakened Eleanor into a deadly snowstorm to retrieve a necklace. She survives, exposes the truth in court, wins her freedom, and creates a fund ensuring that no other woman will ever lose a child for want of fourteen copper coins.