[4][5] Irene is frustrated by the inattentiveness of her lawyer husband Thomas, who refuses to go out with her and makes no secret of his aversion against her friend Liane.

Attracted by artist Walter Frank, Irene visits him in his studio and agrees to his proposal to elope to Austria together, but Thomas puts an end to their plan.

Later, she accompanies Thomas's colleague Möller to a nightclub, where she meets Liane and her friends and makes the acquaintance of boxer Sam.

Some time later, Irene and Thomas appear at court for their divorce, but no sooner that their marriage has been dissolved, they rediscover their feelings for each other and decide to get married again.

[4] In his 1947 study From Caligari to Hitler, film historian Siegfried Kracauer rated The Devious Path as "negligible if it were not for the nightclub scenes in which Pabst manages to evoke the impression that his characters are as they are because of the emptiness of the world they inhabit".