Watch The Immigrant

Ewa is a young girl who arrives at Ellis Island from Poland with her sister. When officials separate her from her ill sibling who is sent to be examined by doctors before being admitted into the country, she soon is victimized by Bruno, the operator of a small theater in Manhattan who is also running a prostitution business on the side. When Ewa's sister is sent to the infirmary on the Island until she regains her strength, and Ewa is threatened with being deported back to her native Poland, she falls easy prey to Bruno when he intervenes to keep her in America in order to force her to become one of his "doves". Ewa hopes that the money she earns will help to get her sister out of the infirmary. When Bruno's magician cousin, Orlando, arrives, there is a sliver of hope that Ewa can escape Bruno's clutches and move West to California with him, serving as an assistant in his magic show. But Ewa feels very conflicted about leaving Manhattan, feeling responsible to stay in her current circumstances as an unwilling prostitute until her sister's health improves.