Maersk describes how he came to be at Norderney: as a teenager, he traveled from the small town of Assens to Copenhagen, where he befriended the wealthy Baron von Gersdorff over their mutual love of botany.

Miss Nat-og-Dag then relates the story of the Countess Calypso: the daughter of the poet Count Seraphina, who disliked femininity, she was brought up in an abbey entirely among men, where she was ignored by everyone around her.

The Cardinal then tells a group a parable about an encounter between Saint Peter and Barabbas in a Jerusalem inn, and the newly married couple falls asleep.

Kasparson relates his life story to Nat-og-Dag, describing his time as an actor, a barber in Seville, a revolutionary in Paris, and a slave trader in Algiers.

The Baron and Nathalie do the usual, though with great reverence on his part, and fall asleep, after which she wakes him in the small hours, asks for twenty francs, and leaves.

The narrator asks the Baron whether he ever found her, to which he responds with a brief anecdote about visiting an artist friend nearly a decade and a half later and seeing him painting a still life of a young woman's skull—a skull which bears remarkable physical similarity to Nathalie's face.