Alan Desland is a socially awkward Englishman who makes a living as a collector and dealer of fine pottery including antique ceramics.

On a business trip to Copenhagen, he falls headlong in love with a mysterious and beautiful young woman named Käthe (or in later editions, Karin), who does clerical work for him and one of his colleagues.

She accepts Alan's proposal on the condition that their wedding should take place as a civil ceremony in England, and appears to have no interest in inviting any relatives or friends of her own from Europe.

Her playful sensuality overwhelms Alan, continuing to captivate him and their entire social circle after their return home to run his family's ceramics shop.

In a haunting episode in which Alan may or may not be in trance, he arrives home to find Käthe naked on the swing in the yard of their property, and as they make love on the lawn, undergoes a transcendent experience.