Joseph Beaugarde, sheltered son of Southern aristocracy, decides to pursue a life in the ministry. On a break from the seminary, he travels to New Orleans to experience the world. He falls in love with pretty Bessie Williams, whom he mistakes for a girl of easy virtue. Joseph seduces Bessie, then overcome with shame, abandons her. A year later, charismatic minister Joseph is gaining notice in the church community, when he is called to the bedside of a dying young unwed mother. Immediately recognizing Bessie, he is forced to come to terms with his sins, or risk being defrocked as a hypocrite.
Pioneer filmmaker D.W. Griffith wrote and directed The White Rose which he referred to as a story of fallen man and "woman's enduring love." In the master's inimitable style, complex passages are communicated with the camera alone, unaided by intercards, such as the scene in which the pastor realizes that the dying un-wed mother he has been called upon to comfort, is the girl he himself has ruined. Handsome leading man Ivor Novello, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's 1927 mystery, The Lodger, first gained fame and fortune during World War I when he composed the anthem, "Keep The Home Fires Burning." He continued his successful career acting, writing music and plays up until his death at age 58 in 1951. The White Rose provided a breakout role for young actor Neil Hamilton who is best remembered as Commissioner Gordon on the hit TV series Batman.