Broken Blossoms (1919)

Fifteen year old Lucy, the illegitimate daughter of boxer and alcoholic Battling Burrows, was raised and still lives in the rough and tumble Limehouse District of East London. She is the lowest of the downtrodden in the neighborhood, often physically and mentally abused, especially by her father. The one person who treats her with respect is Chinese immigrant and shop owner Cheng Huan, who can see the beauty in her humanity. He originally moved to London to spread the word of Buddhism, but he became caught up in the debauchery common to the Limehouse district. In meeting Lucy his life is transformed back to what it once was. He nurses her after the latest beating by her father. Despite the purity of his love for her, a relationship of any kind between the two cannot be endorsed by society because of differences in age and in race especially. When Battling Burrows discovers where his daughter is located, he comes to show the two his version of what is right.