Mobilization on the brink of the Second World War divides a husband and wife. When lawyer Frans van Loon is called up to join the mine clearance service he doesn't want to worry his wife and keeps it from her. His secretiveness leads her to believe he doesn't love her anymore. She subsequently falls for the charms of an actor. When Frans finds out, a violent quarrel ensues.

Still coming to terms with the death of her mother, Willy Verhulst loses her father as well -- just as she is about to sit her final exams. She manages to pass, and as she is trying to find a job she remembers a young man she met in the hospital. The boy, Herder, works for a radio station and gives her a job as a secretary.

1939 film by Douglas Sirk