[7] In 1919 in a Massachusetts factory town, Stella Martin, the daughter of a mill worker, is determined to better her station in life.

Finally, when Stephen is offered a promotion that requires him to move to New York, Stella tells him to take it, though she and Laurel will stay behind.

However, when Stella makes her first appearance after recovering from a mild illness, she becomes the target of derision behind her back for her vulgar fashion sense.

When Laurel learns of this arrangement on her next visit to Helen's mansion, she immediately figures out Stella's thinking and returns home to her mother.

Laurel is upset that her mother did not even send her a letter of congratulations, and Helen comforts her by saying that word of her engagement must not have reached Stella.

[8] The movie premiered at the Radio City Music Hall, and in a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Frank S. Nugent wrote that the character of Stella Dallas, first portrayed on the screen 12 years earlier, was outdated, but that the film's theme of motherly love endured: "[W]e cannot accept Stella Dallas in 1937.

Ignoring the flattery of make-up man and camera, she plays Stella as Mrs. Prouty drew her—coarse, cheap, common ... And yet magnificent as a mother.

[10] Maclean's criticized the outlandish costumes worn by the title character, but praised the story as relevant for any decade, concluding that "the picture is handled with honesty, restraint and feeling.

[12] The character Stella Dallas was nominated for inclusion on the American Film Institute's 2003 list AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains,[14] and is considered by many as among Stanwyck's signature roles.