Novel
In this eerie, atmospheric tale, a young woman is on a train when she sees some people she thinks she knows from her childhood. On arriving home, her husband tells her that a certain countess has died. At that point, the film cuts to a scene of the countess singing in a mausoleum while the visual image of the graveyard's many tombstones passes before one's eyes. Back home, the husband -- also a "father-figure" -- is looking over his collection of wooden angels. Some time elapses, and he surreptitiously sees a thief come down through the chimney, steal some things, and then leave. To combat any recurrence, he builds an iron, escape-proof cage around the fireplace, and then goes away on a trip. When he comes back, he finds the thief dead in the cage. Thus far, the camera has only shown the husband in profile or from the back. Then there is another story about a young girl, with a spiteful, nasty mother, who is trying to cope with her own attraction to a man.
In Memory Of
20년대 말 경 베를린. 망명 러시아인 헤르만 헤르만은 아직도 자작나무, 말 썰매, 늑대 꿈을 꾼다. 그가 다닌 초콜릿 공장이 사양길에 접어들며 아내의 행동이 점점 그의 성질을 돋구게 된다. 그러던 어느 날 헤르만은 자기 자신의 존재감을 잃어버리고 남처럼 자신을 느끼게 된다. 헤르만이 술집에서 알게 된 돌팔이 정신과의사는 생명보험증서를 보여준다. 그는 완전 범죄를 시행하기로 결심한다. 그는 사람을 죽이고 스위스로 도망가고, 경찰이 결국 산간 마을에 있던 그를 체포한다.
