- Widow Martin struggles to rear her little daughter Nora amid the squalor of the slums yet imbue her with the refinement to which she had been accustomed in her girlhood. Fearing that she is losing the battle, Mrs. Martin decides to turn to her wealthy father, who had disowned her upon her marriage years earlier. To raise funds for the trip, she pawns Nora to Aaron Levovitch, an aged pawnbroker with a heart of gold under his gruff exterior. Upon reaching her father's house, Mrs. Martin falls ill and dies before she can relate her story, and Nora is raised by the pawnbroker until a reporter prints her human interest story of a "jewel in pawn." The girl's grandfather reads the article and claims Nora, then sends her to a fashionable boarding school. Nora longs for her home in the slums and her sweetheart Jimmy, however, and so returns to marry Jimmy in an elaborate traditional Jewish ceremony at the pawnbroker's home.—Pamela Short
- Nora Martin is the seventeen-year-old sunbeam of the tenements. She teaches the little youngsters how to spell and read, and helps Aaron Levovitch in his pawnshop. When Mrs. Martin determines to remove her daughter from the slums, she goes to Levovitch with all her earthly possessions, but there is not enough on which sue can raise the money she needs to take her daughter to her grandfather's home in the country. Mrs. Martin had married against her father's will, and when her husband died she was left impoverished. Determined now to attempt a reconciliation with her parents, Mrs. Martin pawns her possessions for railroad fare. When Aaron suggests that she pawn her daughter, Mrs. Martin reluctantly consents, and goes alone to seek parental forgiveness. Arriving at her father's country estate, Mrs. Martin finds that he is living at his home in the city. Mrs. Martin is taken into the house, where she dies. The father, telegraphed for, arrives too late to see his daughter alive. His servants tell him that Mrs. Martin in her final delirium has begged them to "redeem her jewel in pawn." Meanwhile, in Aaron Levovitch's pawnshop, Nora is daily endearing herself to the kindly old Hebrew, who gives her every care and comfort his lowly quarters afford. Newsboy Jimmy has always been Nora's defender and reliance in her contest with "the Bully" and other children, and when Jimmy is falsely accused of theft, the Judge of the Juvenile Court paroles him in Nora's care. Thus he also comes to live with Levovitch. The two children look upon Aaron as their father. During Jimmie's day in court, Bob Hendricks, a newspaper reporter, senses his opportunity and prints a "heart interest" narrative about "the jewel in pawn." This story comes under the eye of Nora's grandfather. John Dane, and the wealthy old widower goes at once to Aaron's pawnshop and claims his relative. Three years in preparatory school turns Nora out a beautiful young lady, and Percival Van Dyke, a snobbish Englishman, sets his cap for her. On a day when Nora is giving a tea to her schoolmates, Jimmie and Aaron, in response to Nora's invitation, call. When Nora takes them into the garden for a chat, Jimmie makes bold to tell his abiding love and Nora is quick to prove that she reciprocates. Percival sees the three in conversation with Jimmie and Nora in a most loving embrace, and calls Nora's grandfather to gaze upon the scene. The old man orders Jimmie and Aaron from the grounds. Nora loses little time in changing her clothes, to the dress she had brought from her humble station in life, and is soon back again in Aaron's pawnshop. Nora's grandfather reads the note she leaves behind and taking Percival hurries to Aaron's place, but arrives only in time to be a witness to the Jewish marriage ceremony that unites Jimmie and Nora for life.—Moving Picture World synopsis
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