Not Wanted

Nineteen-year-old Sally Kelton, a waitress in a small town, falls in love with Steve Ryan, an older man who is a struggling piano player. The night before Steve is scheduled to leave town, he and Sally make love; at dawn, on her way home, Sally is stopped for speeding and gets in trouble with her parents. As a result, she runs away from home to surprise Steve in Capitol City. On the bus, she is befriended by a young war veteran named Drew Baxter, who recommends a rooming house for Sally's lodging. Despite his lack of interest, Sally pursues Steve, and one day begs him to marry her, but is rejected. While heartbroken over Steve, Sally works for Drew at his gas station, and he begins to fall in love with her. To get Sally out of her depression, Drew takes her out for a day, and after a ride on a merry-go-round, asks her to marry him. Drew is afraid Sally will reject him because of a war injury that has left him with a wooden leg, but she assures him he is the kindest man she has ever known, and asks for time to consider his proposal. While gazing at the merry-go-round lights, Sally faints, and Drew takes her home, and later a doctor tells her she is pregnant. In shame, Sally runs away again to a new town, where one day she collapses outside a church and is taken to a hospital for unwed mothers. On a tip from the landlady, Drew visits the hospital at Christmas time and is told by a kind nurse named Mrs. Stone that Sally is going to have a baby. After she gives birth, Sally decides to give her son up for adoption because she cannot afford to take care of him and does not want him to suffer for being born out of wedlock. She gets a job in a laundry, but is daily reminded of her son by the many children in her neighborhood. In a fit of remorse, Sally tells a hospital social worker that she wants her baby back, but he has already been christened by his new parents. After leaving the hospital in a daze, Sally sees a baby in a carriage and picks it up, then wanders down the street and is arrested for kidnapping. Mrs. Stone reads about Sally's arrest in the newspaper and calls the court; subsequently, the mother of the infant drops the charges. The social worker, meanwhile, calls Drew. On her way out of the courthouse, after Sally sees Drew, she runs to throw herself off a bridge. Drew saves her, but then, because of his bad leg, exhausts himself trying to run after her. Finally he collapses, but Sally looks back and, after she runs to him, they embrace.