Ellen Rosengren

Baron Brusenhielm at castle Tröstehult in Skåne dislikes how his young son Karl Oscar is playing “mother and father” with the tenant’s daughter Ann-Marie, as he anticipates the beginning of a future misalliance. Years pass, and Karl Oscar is about to graduate high school. He pretends to study church history but reads in fact “The Seducer’s Diary” and thinks of Ann-Marie, who is now grown up into a woman.

The wealthy hat maker Cederström has two daughters, Marianne and Lotte. He has decided that Marianne should marry Melander even though she loves the poet Malm. Lotte on the other hand loves Melander.