alan desland is a socially awkward englishman who makes a living as a collector and dealer of fine pottery including antique ceramics. on a business trip to copenhagen, he falls headlong in love with a mysterious and beautiful young woman named käthe (or in some editions, karin), who does clerical work for him and one of his colleagues. after ten days of mutually infatuated courtship, he proposes marriage to her despite knowing nothing about her family or background. at one stage alan glimpses her from afar with the figure of a girl who käthe later tells him was the daughter of a friend. she accepts alan's proposal on the condition that their wedding should take place as a civil ceremony in england, and appears to have no interest in inviting any relatives or friends of her own from europe.