A woman is murdered and a little girl is the only one who can reveal the perpetrator.
American businessman Chris Johnson spent WW2 in Sweden and fell in love with a nurse, Karin Engström. He lost contact with her after war and now, seven years later, he returns to Sweden on a business trip, trying to find her again.
Maria is a waitress at a local restaurant when an older man propose to her. She is a bit skeptical but agrees to marry him and become the mistress of his estate Kvarngården. Maria had a son which she was forced to give away for adoption when he was born because she could not take care of him. She has keep contact with the child and posed as a kind aunt. She has not told her new husband about her son and when the years go by and no children of their own comes along the resentment and bitterness grows. When the adoptive mother of Maria's son dies she and the adoptive father agrees that the best thing for the boy is to come and stay with Maria at Kvarngården. She also hope that it will make her husband come out of his bitterness to have a young boy around. The result is unfortunately quite the opposite.
The night before her wedding, a nervous bride examines her gifts and picks out a book of romantic short stories. Hoping to while away the evening, she settles on the couch and begins reading "La grande Bretêche" by Honoré de Balzac.
