The wealthy but selfish parents of a lonely young girl begin to rethink what is important to them after a servant's irresponsibility results in a crisis.
Gwen's family is rich, but her parents ignore her and most of the servants push her around, so she is lonely and unhappy. Her father is concerned only with making money, and her mother cares only about her social position. But one day a servant's irresponsibility creates a crisis that causes everyone to rethink what is important to them.—Snow Leopard
Gwendolyn, the "poor little rich girl," is so called for her wealth of material comforts and her poverty in the happiness and affection she craves. Surrounded by everything that money can purchase, she longs for the maternal love and care that her mother's social duties leave no time for. Wall Street so occupies her father's attention that he neglects to show affection. Each morning the tutors instruct her in the schoolroom under the guidance of Miss Royle, the governess, and each fine afternoon, Jane, her nurse, accompanies her for a ride through the park in her limousine, guarded by liveried footman and chauffeur. At sundown a hurried kiss dismisses her from the parents, who must hurry off to some social function or to a business conference. On her eleventh birthday her mother finds the anniversary an excuse to invite a number of guests to celebrate the event, but excludes Gwendolyn, who is sent to bed in charge of her nurse. Jane has already arranged with Thomas, the footman, to see the latest feature at a neighboring theater and her vigil grows monotonous. To dispose quickly of her charge, the nurse gives Gwen a dose of sleeping potion. Gwen falls into a delirium as she tries, in her last semi-consciousness, to reach her mother. As she passes from the scene of her childish tribulations, she awakens in the tell-tale forest, where things appear "as they are." Here she meets those she knows as they have impressed her innocent mind. Jane, the nurse, appears as the "two-faced thing," wearing a replica of her own countenance upon the back of her head. Miss Royle, the governess, glides into her dream as the "snake in the grass." Jotter, the butler, cavorts as the "silly ass" and Thomas, who is suspected of being "all ears," pursues her with aural appendages that equal his head in size. Accompanied by a friendly plumber, who has recently been to the house to fix the pipes and who she pictures as "The Piper," and Mr. Grinder, who is her dream conception of a kindly old philosopher that turns the crank of a hand organ for a livelihood, she journeys on, pursued by Big Ears, Silly Ass, et al. From the tell-tale forest she wanders to the Land of Lights. Here she meets her mother with the Social Bee in her bonnet. Her father gallops in, "riding his hobby," and dressed in an armor of coins which is the result of being "made of money." Thus her delirious brain carries her around "Robin Hood's Barn," where the society peacocks squawk at her and the crocodiles shed tears into the Lily Pond. Fierce bears growl in Wall Street, while her father and his associates beat upon the gates at the head of the street for admission. The symbolism of Gwen's dream has its sequel at the bedside, where those she pictures are gathered to urge the doctor to bring her back. Her childish talk of what she sees impresses upon the parents the terrible neglect they have been guilty of. Grief and remorse seizes them, and when the vigil of the night is broken at dawn by the child's gradual recovery, they, too, see things "as they are," and she greets with a smile her reconstructed father and mother. The doctor's prescription of plenty of play, to be taken in a gingham dress is immediately acted upon, and love leads three loving hearts over the hill of shadow into the valley of sunshine.—Moving Picture World synopsis
