In a castle, the General and Bálint gathered boys for a strange training. They want to select the most capable of them for the big operation. The choice falls on the Son, who must pass the final test before his mission. He will be beaten, but he cannot reveal the name of his handler. The Boy is not broken during the beating, but afterwards he falls into apathy, refusing to leave his room. Teresa talks to him emotionally, threateningly, logically - but to no avail. When she tells him that he will not get up, he gives her a cruel order...

Set in the 18th century, this tragicomedy depicts the debauchery of aristocratic officers condemned to celibacy, in the fate of a bourgeois girl reduced to a street slum. Marie, the beautiful young daughter of the decorative arts merchant Wesener, already has a fiancé, the poster merchant Stolzius, but Desportes, an officer in the French army, has his eye on her. At first, Wesener does everything he can to keep the beauty away from his daughter. But Marie convinces her father that the Baron's intentions are honourable. The father thinks it's his chance to marry the girl above his station. But his calculations are wrong.