The Awakening of Ruth (1917)

Ruth Hoagland grows up on an island off the Massachusetts coast with no companion other than her father, a half-witted fisherman who spends most of his time hunting for buried treasure. Vacationing yachtsman Bob Winthrop and Ruth fall in love, but Winthrop returns to New York, and after a year, has forgotten Ruth. After finding two chests in a cave, Ruth locates her father unconscious from a fall. She goes to the mainland for help, but returns with the Reverend Josiah Arbuthnot and Dr. William Strong, to find her father dead. Strong, out of kindness, offers to marry her, but Ruth declines, sure that Winthrop will return. She offers to divide the chests with Strong and Arbuthnot, but after Strong discovers they are worthless, he withdraws his savings, and gives Ruth money to develop her voice in New York, saying that it came from selling the chests' contents. After Ruth learns of Winthrop's affair with a musical comedy star, she returns to the island to prepare for her Broadway debut, where she discovers Strong's sacrifice.