Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (film) later inspired a television soap opera in 1967, though without the hyphen in the show's title. A widowed Eurasian doctor Han Suyin (Jones) falls in love with a married-but-separated American correspondent Mark Elliott (Holden) in Hong Kong, during the period of China's Civil War in the late 1940s. Although they briefly find happiness together, she is ostracized by the greater Chinese community. After losing her position at the hospital, Suyin and her adopted daughter go to live with a friend while Mark is on an assignment during the Korean War. They write to each other constantly. She receives word Mark
Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (TV series) (Joan McMonagle) yet he never forgot Iris and pursues her even though she's married to Spence, who is now a state senator. Joe leaves the daycare to become Spence's administrative assistant while Holly becomes his secretary. Desperate for a baby, Laura schemes with Jim to get custody of Maggie after he figures out through a medical record that Mark is her biological father; however, Tom arranges a private adoption for Laura and Mark, and Laura reconciles her differences with Iris. Laura and Mark adopt a baby boy they name Philip Elliot. Peter learns that Angel has incurable cancer and vows