Vera Brechling

Joy abounds in the little workers’ home when the three daughters of the family all come home wearing an engagement ring. When the sons-in-law come to visit, one in particular stands out. The merchant Black is wealthy and wears fine clothes, but the labourer family is quite unimpressed by that. They tease him for his airs and graces, eventually prompting him to take his fiancée by the hand and hurry out of the – in his eyes – wretched home. As time goes on, however, it turns out that pride comes before a fall. (stumfilm.dk)

The aristocratic Krag refuses to let his daughter marry the bourgeois Carl Vedel, even though the whole family begs him to permit the match. Fortunately, several opportunities for persuading the stubborn patriarch suddenly appear. For example, it turns out that he regularly visits the manicurist Stella in town, and he will have to account for that. (stumfilm.dk)

A Savoyard peasant family is banished from their home because they have not paid their taxes on time. When the count sees the family’s beautiful daughter Annette, he immediately suggests that they can stay if Annette comes to the estate as a housemaid. Plainly seeing the count’s disgraceful plans for what they are, the father, Antonio, resolutely rejects the offer. To raise money, Annette, her brother and a friend travel instead to Paris where Annette meets and falls in love with the count’s son Henry. When Annette’s father sets out to Paris to fetch the children home to his sick wife, he is horrified at the sight of his daughter’s newfound wealth. Has she sold herself for mere money? (Stumfilm.dk)

Laurent, a painter, observes the performance of the dancer Marguerite and immediately feels drawn to her beauty and being. He invites her to his studio and the two fall in love. Unfortunately, Marguerite is already married to Stelio, who soon finds out about the affair. Stelio seeks out the hypnotist Pizarro for revenge, and the story takes a deadly turn. (Stumfilm.dk)

Having grown up in poverty, the ambitious Nana is determined to break out of it. She becomes part of the Paris theatre scene and gets involved with several of the men who court her. However, Nana’s impoverished past catches up with her, and the story comes to a tragic end. Stumfilm.dk