With the help of Mrs. Greifer, owner of a fashion boutique and a night club, Marie becomes the mistress of Canez, a speculator on the stock exchange market.

Meanwhile, Rumfort loses his pension in a share transaction in which Canez was involved, while Grete is dismissed from her job for rejecting her employer's sexual advances.

To pay for their expenses, the Rumfort family offers a room to let to American Red Cross officer Davy, who is enamoured with Grete's charms.

When Davy witnesses Grete during a nightclub event, he scolds her for her amorality, but forgives her when he learns from her father that she only participated to save her family from starving.

[1] Rudolf Thome, reviewing Joyless Street for the Süddeutsche Zeitung in 1964, disagreed with this view, calling it "Pabst's masterpiece", whose scenes do not represent ideas and whose images only conveye the meaning of what can actually be seen.

[1] 30 years after Eisner, critic Pauline Kael titled Joyless Street an "extraordinary triumph of cinematography and Expressionist design", which despite its weak parts "makes a very strong visual impression".

[8] Dave Kehr, writing for the Chicago Reader in 1985, was more reserved, calling it "heavy going" and "an official classic that hasn't quite earned the title".