She had lived in Denmark, and for a year in a pension in Lübeck, and her idea of the earth was that it must spread out horizontally, flat or undulating, before her feet. But in these mountains, everything seemed strangely to stand up vertically, like some great animal that rises on its hind legs, – and you know not whether it is to play, or to crush you.

During their honeymoon to Norway, Jensine makes several disheartening realisations about her husband, Alexander. Combined with the rumours of war spreading in the newspapers, Jensine begins to ponder what the future will bring. Her worries flow over: she accidentally snaps her pearl necklace, a family heirloom…