To shore up cinema's cultural cachet, Sjöström and Swedish Biograph turned increasingly to literary sources. The Girl from the Marsh Croft was the first of several faithful and very successful adaptations Sjöström made of Nobel Prize–winning author Selma Lagerlöf's work. The film explores questions of legitimacy in the context of a traditional nineteenth-century Swedish farming community that has ostracized a young girl, Helga, for bearing an illegitimate child. During a paternity suit in court, Helga withdraws her case rather than see the child's father swear falsely and commit an unpardonable sin. Her actions further ostracize her in the eyes of some, but others are moved by her moral courage. Henrik Jaenzon's innovative camerawork brings the landscape alive against the backdrop of the Swedish folk culture of Dalecarlia.