Early Spring

Helga Angenendt has been staying in Travemünde for a few weeks for a spa stay to have her asthma attacks, weakness and exhaustion treated. Hella is longingly waiting for her husband to visit, who hadn't found time to see her during all the weeks of her stay at the spa. Instead of asking about the real causes of their troubled relationship, Hella excuses his absence with his exhausting job. As in all the years before, she refuses to fully recognize her situation. Her son Hartwig also tries in vain to open her eyes. During Hella's absence, Manfred Angenendt lives with his new girlfriend Beate, from whom he hopes for understanding and security, which he misses in his marriage to Hella. From a specialist conference in Lübeck he wants to visit Hella in Travemünde and teach her as gently as possible that he wants to part with her for good.

Magda wants to work as a nanny and asks her former teacher Miss Malleson for a commendation. The teacher refuses due to a dark secret in Magda's past. Magda abruptly proceeds to smear the teacher's reputation to get what she wants.

Jack Brookfield is a professional gambler. His niece, Viola, is engaged to Clay Whipple. Whipple's mother, a widow, was Brookfield's former love. Frank Hardmuth, the District Attorney, is Whipple's rival for Viola's affections. Whipple has inherited a fear of a particular cat's-eye jewel. At a party, a drunk named Tom Denning taunts Whipple with the jewel, causing Whipple to strike and kill him. Hardmuth prosecutes the case, and gets Whipple convicted. Behind bars, Whipple has a dream of his wedding day, seeing himself and Viola at the altar; then a rope falls from above and encircles his neck. Whipple's mother remembers that Judge Prentice, who is on the Supreme Court, was once in love with her own mother. She appeals to him to intercede, and he recalls an incident involving the jewel which caused him to fight over Mrs. Whipple's mother, who also had a reaction to the jewel. The Judge secures a new trial for Whipple, and testifies on his behalf regarding the jewel. Whipple is acquitted. Brookfield exposes Hardmuth, who had been seeking the Governor's office, in a murder plot.