Civil bureaucrat Joseph Staple is sitting outside when he is approached by a friendly little girl - Annalise - who engages him in conversation. Her mother, Ferda, does not mind this strange friendship and is content to sit indifferently by. Later, sitting in his office, Staple observes the cigarette case that Annalise gave him; the initials carved on it are certainly not hers. The girl has told him already that her mother's lover, Vincent, hits both of them - and that when he comes over, she is sent to sleep alone in the basement. Staple summons Vincent, who works in his office, and warns him to stay away from Ferda and Annalise. This warning is sneered at, and impulsively Staple decides to take action. He gives Annalise a note to pass on to Ferda, asking her to pretend as if everything was normal in Vincent's presence - and then to sneak out in the night and go back to her village. Making his way to the officers' bar, he arranges a raid on the house on charges of theft, hoping to ensnare Vincent and have him arrested. But things go terribly wrong. The next morning he is trapped in a meeting with an old acrobat who demands to be allowed to return to the circus. Upon hearing that circuses have not come back yet after the war, the old man indignantly performs a jump and sprains his back. In the midst of this humiliating encounter, Vincent enters the room and triumphantly informs Staple that Ferda and Annalise are in jail. The note that Staple had given Annalise was written in English, and Ferda, being unable to understand the language, had asked Vincent to translate it. Vincent abandoned Ferda just before the raid, and she hung herself in jail. Riddled with guilt, Staple takes charge of Annalise and gives her to the nuns. He pays a fee periodically as penance for what happened to her mother as a result of his actions.