Poul and Alva have been married for a few years when dark clouds begin to gather over their marriage. The dream of having a child doesn’t come true, and the couple drifts further and further apart. Alva escapes into her great passion – music, while Poul becomes embittered by the injustice of fate. When he meets the smiling and cheerful Eva, it doesn’t take him long to forsake Alva and enter into a new marriage. Yet Poul remains unhappy, for Eva is a spendthrift who knows nothing about housekeeping. Alone and abandoned, his thoughts begin to wander back to Alva, the love of his youth. Has he been deceived by the illusion of happiness?