Sorrell and Son plot
"Would you give your strength year after year---fight hardship and failure---and finally give your life---that your son might live and love!"
Captain Sorrell returns from the war to find that his wife has run away and that his son is now dependent on him. He can hardly find a job until he is hired as a doorman, which he continues to do so that his son can receive a good education. When the son becomes a successful doctor later in life, an incurable form of cancer is discovered in his father. Now that his father is slowly withering away, the son can no longer watch. They decide, with great reluctance, to commit euthanasia.