A Bohemian, Josef, comes home to find that he has a new neighbor in his apartment. He wonders who the newcomer is, but he knows it must be a woman by the strong smell of perfume that is wafting in the hallway. He hears some noise from downstairs and remembers that he invited his friends over for a game of cards. A Greek man, a Russian, and a countryman from Bohemia all enter his room, the latter who looks like he has seen a ghost. Josef asks what is wrong with his countryman and the countryman says that the perfume smell reminds him of his dying sister when he was a child. The three men don’t believe him and know that the perfume must remind him of a past love. He concedes that this is true and they ask him how old he was when he met this woman. He says he was only seven years old. They hear the neighbor open her door and leave the house. They ask the countryman about the woman he remembers and he begins to tell the story. He had grown up in a small village outside of Josef’s town. One spring, many laborers come to his small village to work at the nearby river to build a dam for electricity. Every night the young countryman hears the loud and happy sounds of the laboring men, laughing and having fun. His father, a woodcutter, goes every morning into the forest and the young boy decides he wants to go with him so that he can see the new men. However, his mother does not let him and so the boy is forced to stay at home. One day, a traveling merchant comes to their door and while the boy’s mother is distracted the boy runs out of the house and into the forest. He finds a small hill where he can see the men laboring below him and he finds it fascinating to watch them all day long. However as the men leave, the boy finds that he does not want to go home as he can hear his father calling his name in the forest and the boy is afraid of him.  He wanders through the forest and comes to the collection of houses that the laboring men are living in. He finds one door open and inside he sees a beautiful woman who looks like she is waiting for a man. Upon seeing the boy, the woman rushes to him and closes the door behind him. The boy falls into her arms and feels comforted by her. She does not question where he came from and feeds him plum cake and honey from a honeypot. While he is there, a few men knock on the woman’s door and she tells them all that she is busy. The boy falls asleep in her bed and only wakes once to thunder but is comforted by the woman’s arms.  When he wakes in the morning he cries because he knows that he is going to have to leave the woman forever. The woman walks him back to his home and when his parents see him they grab him and close the door in the woman’s face. His parents question him where he went, even beating him for the answer, but he does not respond. He dreams of the woman every night and one day tries to go back to her, but finds her home empty. After that he begins to work for his father. The three men listen to the countryman finish his story, and they all hear the woman return to her room with loud footsteps. The Greek tells the countryman to go see her again, but he says he is afraid and longing to see her at the same time. The Russian says that the countryman is afraid of disturbing his dream. The countryman asks Josef to go talk to the woman to see if it is her and so Josef goes over to her room while the other three play cards. He knocks on the door and  Josef says he is a fellow countryman and she tells him to go away. He doesn’t and she opens the door and Josef sees that she is a large old woman. He sees a honey pot on her table and knows it is her. He then tells her about the child that came to see her that one night and she becomes afraid to see him. Josef asks if she wants to meet him again and she says no. Josef leaves and tells the countryman that she is just a fat old woman. The woman walks outside and the countryman says he is going to leave. Josef watches from the window as the countryman passes by the woman and she wants to talk to him but holds herself back. The Greek and the Russian ask Josef why he lied and he asks if it is better for someone to know the truth or believe in a dream.