[5] Book and film give an account of a bourgeois woman who struggles with her sexuality.

During a visit to her mother's grave she meets Johan, a young man who is very smitten with her.

Three years later Hedwig is a lady and again meets Johan, now a poor aspiring artist.

She first refuses him when he meets her in her chambers but at night she can't control her sexual fantasies.

During a passionate night with Ritsaart, Hedwig enjoys sex for the first time and intends to leave Gerard.

He, filled with jealousy, plans to kill Ritsaart when he comes visiting, but their confrontation is interrupted when they note water running down the walls of the house: they run upstairs to find Hedwig in the bathroom with a slashed wrist.

Gerard sees how Ritsaart turns out to be Hedwig's saving angel and lets his wife go.

The physician who aids her in the delivery is pessimistic about the baby's health and tells the maid he only gives the newborn a couple of days to live.

Hedwig experiences a postpartum psychosis in which she stuffs baby Charlotte and her jewels in a bag and sets off, intending to go back to Holland.

The former was concerned with artistic integrity, the latter with money; Van Heijningen publicly criticized the director and her staff by calling them lazy amateurs in a leading Dutch movie magazine.

Van Heijningen apologized, again publicly, and work was resumed; afterward, he took out a full-page ad and congratulated the crew—they did likewise.