The gripping novel Tess of the Storm Country was a very popular bestseller that inspired no fewer than four film versions. The story centers on Tess Skinner, a beautiful but impoverished young woman from the wrong side of the tracks. The book offers a gritty look at poverty and social mores in turn-of-the-twentieth-century America, but this note of realism is nicely balanced out by the against-all-odds romance that blossoms between Tess and the man of her dreams.