It follows three periods in the life of Karl Victor von Sendlingen, a Danish aristocrat living in a small city at the turn of the 20th century.

Franz Victor takes his son to the ruins of the old family castle where he confesses how as a young man he had made pregnant the porter's daughter and was forced by his father Rigsherre von Sendlingen to marry her.

Before dying, he asks Karl Victor to swear on the family coat of arms that he will never marry a commoner, "as no good ever comes from such an alliance".

The lady threw Victorine out of her castle in the middle of the night and she was found on the side of the road the next morning, unconscious and with her dead infant next to her.

He organises, with his servants Franz and Birgitta, Victorine's escape during the banquet offered to thank him for his exemplary tenure as president of the city's tribunal.

He asks Franz, who has come aboard to carry Weyden's luggage, to tell Karl Victor that he will always remember him with love and respect.

The following day, Karl Victor goes back home and confesses to Werner, now president of the tribunal, that he had organised Victorine's escape.