This little-known film by G. W. Pabst is a portrait of a woman torn between love and money, humanitarianism and materialism. Cornelia (Ilse Werner) is the wife of an idealistic explorer and together they plumb the "secrets" of Alpine caves. But she is drawn toward an industrialist who had tried to corrupt her husband. A mixture of the baroque and the psychoanalytical, the film is told from the point of view of the heroine, who from the start asserts action and independence, according to Bernard Eisenschitz, writing for the Cinémathèque Française. "Desire, which is the engine of the erotic Pabst°here disappears. The seductive power of la fête, central to his films with Louise Brooks (Pandora's Box), is now associated with the negative power of money°.In this film we find further proof that the image can say everything°.The relationships are played out in patterns of light and mirrors (literally and narratively)°.This director had not lost any of his considerable talent." Based on a script by Pabst's wife, the film was scheduled to be produced in 1941-42 but was shelved.