A writer bets a publisher friend that he can write a 10,000-word novel in 24 hours. The publisher takes the bet, and gives him the "only key" to his Baldpate Inn, which has been closed for the winter, so he can write in complete seclusion. Things start heating up, though, when a succession of people who also have keys to the inn begin showing up.
Shakespeare's tragedy of two young people who fall desperately in love despite the ancient feud between their two families, and how the sins of the fathers bring disaster to their children.
Set in London (but filmed in New Jersey), the story endeavors to prove that man's greatest enemy is liquor. When elderly tosspot John Warriner is shot for trespassing, Warriner's son holds property owner Sir Arthur Stanton. Thus begins a bitter and deadly feud between the Warriner and Stanton clans, fueled by rotgut booze. Prints of the film survive in the film archives of the Library of Congress and the Museum of Modern Art.
