Even by Hollywood standards it might be considered over the top. Gene Stratton Porter, a young girl from the small town of Wabash, Indiana is injured in a fall and while recuperating, visits a Chautauqua in northwest Indiana where she meets an older man who is a successful pharmacist.

Marrying him, the two discover oil on their property, becoming even wealthier. Then this woman, who never finished high school, begins writing books. The second one becomes a best seller and within a whirlwind 22 years, she goes on to write 10 more novels, many of which are made into movies.

She travels from Rome City, Indiana where she, her husband and daughter lived, to Hollywood, starting a film company to produce movies of her books. Beginning to build homes in the snazzy enclave of Bel Air and on lush Catalina Island, she is killed when her limousine is hit by a trolley car in 1924.