Opening 24 May 1923 at the Provincetown Playhouse, the North Carolina folk drama by Lula Vollmer ran for 361 performances and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. All three acts are set in the remote mountain cabin of the corncob pipe-smoking Widow Cagle. It is 1917, and her son Rufe goes off to war in France, leaving his bride with his mother. The women learn of Rufe's death and they shelter a deserter. When Widow Cagle learns that the deserter is the son of the man who shot her husband, she prepares to shoot him. Suddenly she hears Rufe's voice telling her to end the hatred. She helps the stranger escape, as the room is flooded with morning sunlight.
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.