The Purchase Price

Joan, a New York torch singer, abandons her wealthy criminal boyfriend Eddie Fields in favor of Don Leslie. She chooses an upstanding life and breaks with Eddie, setting out to reinvent herself. The decision marks the end of her old romance and the start of a precarious new chapter.

Don's father learns about Joan's relationship with Eddie, causing tension between Joan and Don. They cancel their engagement, and she leaves town rather than return to Eddie. The revelation forces Joan to flee and seek a fresh start elsewhere.

In Montreal, Joan changes her name and resumes performing as a singer, hoping to escape her past. She creates a new identity and a new life on the bustling stage. The city offers anonymity and a chance to rebuild.

One of Eddie's men recognizes Joan in Montreal and informs Eddie, threatening to drag her past into the present. The pursuit of her former life begins to close in again. Joan must navigate the risk of exposure while trying to stay free.

Joan engineers a plan with hotel maid Emily, offering $100 for Jim Gilson's North Dakota address and a chance to swap lives. The scheme hinges on becoming Jim's wife and starting over in the prairie state. It is a desperate gambit to escape a shadowed past.

Joan travels to Elk's Crossing, North Dakota, taking on the role of Jim Gilson's wife. She must endure the harsh realities of farm life while maintaining her new identity. The move marks a dramatic pivot from stage nights to prairie days.

Jim and Joan are married on October 26, 1931 in Elk's Crossing, North Dakota. The ceremony seals a complicated partnership born of necessity rather than romance. The union sets the stage for their ensuing struggles and growth.

On their first night together, Joan rejects Jim's advances and is sent to sleep apart. In the morning she apologizes, but Jim remains distant. The rocky start foreshadows the emotional barriers each must break.

Over time Joan becomes a capable farmer's wife and begins to fall in love, but Jim stays emotionally distant. He faces the threat of losing his land to foreclosure, relying on a future harvest to prove the farm's viability. The couple's bond slowly strengthens under pressure.

Bull McDowell proposes buying Jim's land in exchange for Joan's company, but Jim refuses the deal. The rejection makes Bull a persistent enemy and intensifies the farm's looming crisis. The moral cost of staying on the land weighs heavily on both.

Joan visits a neighbor who has just given birth and tends to the frightened daughter before braving a snowstorm home. Eddie appears there, claiming Jim is lost in the storm and tries to lure Joan back. The encounter reopens the door to her past at a critical moment.

Joan privately asks Eddie for a loan to save Jim's land, which Jim suspects comes from the bank as an extension. The loan buys time until after the harvest, enabling them to stay on the farm and keep hope alive. This act ties Joan's fate closely to the farm's survival.

Bull torches part of the crop, but Joan and Jim manage to save the remaining harvest. Joan is injured in the process, and the crisis finally begins to crack Jim's hard exterior. Their shared adversity begins to heal their rift and deepen their bond.