A first-born baby girl, is sent away and placed in the care of Gretchen, a trusted peasant woman, who is the widowed mother of a child about the same age. The two children grow up as sisters. Later, upon her deathbed, the noble lady repents and sends for her child to reinstate her. Gretchen takes this opportunity to make a great lady of her own daughter Lena, the goose girl, by sending her to court instead of the real heiress. Hence Lena is taken before the noble lady as she breathes her last, happy in the belief that she has made reparation. Lena is now a great lady, but the title does not fit well. She longs to be back with Gretchen and her “geeses”.
Tag: 1910s
September 1918. The First World War comes to an end but nobody knows it yet. Among the grape harvesters working on the Castelviel estate in the south of France are several refugees from the North, who were driven from their homes by the war. They are Father Larcher and his two daughters, Martha and Mary. There is also Pierre Bertin, a soldier on convalescent leave. And two escaped German prisoners, Wilfried and Fritz, who pretend to be Belgian and threaten the tranquility of this already well-endowed family.