The story
“A young missionary, filled with the religious fervor, joyfully accepts the post to carry the gospel to a section of Japan, where white men are not known. His wife and little daughter go with him, and he starts for his station with native guides and bearers. When they had penetrated some distance into the interior, the missionary and his wife are stricken with the plague. Their native escorts, in fear, flee, leaving them helpless and alone in a strange deserted region. The fleeing bearers pass a Buddhist temple, which they find for the moment unguarded. The scoundrels loot the temple, carrying off with them a jeweled idol. The missionary and his wife die shortly, leaving the little child alone in the strange wilderness. She wanders off in the same direction as that taken by the bearers when they fled. She arrives at the temple, shortly after the loss of the idol has been discovered by a Buddhist priest, who has rushed out to summon the natives. Finding a house, and hoping it contains people who can aid her, the little child enters the temple. She finds it deserted, but worn out with her long walk, she sinks on the pillaged altar and falls asleep. When the priest and the natives return, they find a tiny kimono-clad creature on the altar, with a strangely beautiful white face. At once they decided this must be their god come to life, bow down to her and offer her homage.
“For 10 years the little foreigner holds undisputed sway as priestess to the temple. At first she was too young to realize her position, and gradually her old life fades away and seems but a dream. She could scarcely remember any life save the secluded one she lived in the temple. A young American naval officer, whose ship is temporarily anchored in the waters of Japan, gets shore leave for a day’s hunting. He penetrates in the interior, shooting many strange wild birds. He aims at a bird on a wing, wounding it slightly, and surprised to see it fly into a secluded dell. On following the bird, he finds himself outside the walled garden of the temple, and learns he has shot one of its sacred pigeons, which he finds carefully being tended to by the beautiful young priestess. With this introduction, friendship, which soon ripens into love, develops between the officer and the priestess. The pigeon which he wounded is trained to carry their love messages from the temple to the ship. The officer finally prevails upon his loved one to leave her temple and sail with him back to the land of her people. They are attacked by an indignant band of natives, who refuse to allow their priestess to be taken from them. The fugitives take refuge from the angry mob in the temple, from which place of safety they dispatch the carrier pigeon to the ship with a message employing help. The blue jackets get the message, and reach the temple to rescue their officer and his future bride from the hands of the natives.”
Summary from The Moving Picture World · 11 September 1911
