Throughout the story, Marian—a wealthy married socialite—is pursued by a variety of suitors and her social decline mirrors the end of the American frontier.

[2] Niel Herbert, a young man who grows up in Sweet Water, witnesses the slow decline of Marian Forrester, for whom he feels very deeply, and also of the West itself from the idealized age of noble pioneers to the age of capitalist exploitation.

[2] Marian Forrester, in particular, partly inspired his Daisy Buchanan character in The Great Gatsby.

[7] Directed by Harry Beaumont, the film starred Irene Rich, Matt Moore, June Marlowe, and John Roche.

[7] It would also be adapted very loosely into a film of the same name in 1934 by Gene Markey, and starred Barbara Stanwyck as Marian Forrester.