Abel Hradschek and his wife Ursel are in great difficulty. After their children had died, they were still in financial hardship by Ursel's tendency to "nobility" and Abel's playfulness. While Ursel tried to find a stop in her faith and with Father Eccelius, Abel fled further into the game and into the alcohol. The traveling debt collector Szulski can arrive every day and take away the house and the farm. The village and especially the uncanny neighbor Jeschke observes the decline of the Hradscheks with malice. As Abel under the pear tree makes a discovery .—Matthias Horbelt