People Meet and Sweet Music Fills the Heart

Sofia Petersen, a promiscuous dancer, meets student Hans Madsen while traveling on a train to South America, and the two make love. Hans has just left his girl friend, Evangeline, and is on his way to meet his fiancée, Mithra, a woman who is admittedly seeing other men and eventually reveals herself to be a lesbian. Sofia meets Evangeline's husband, an actor named Sjalof, on the train when Hans has departed; and after making love, they decide to travel to South America together. Ramon, Sofia's stepfather, tries to seduce her; but Sjalof kills him, gets Sofia a job at a brothel in Rio de Janeiro, and then returns to Evangeline in Denmark. Evangeline has since become a streetwalker, and Sjalof encourages her to continue supporting them in this fashion. Sofia cheerfully enjoys the wanton life of the brothel. She travels to New York City and, with the help of theater impresario Robert Clair de Lune, becomes a dancing star. Meanwhile Hans, who has since married Mithra, travels to Rio de Janeiro and then to New York in search of Sofia. They meet again, and Hans fantasizes about living with Sofia and two of the prostitutes from the brothel. Again on a train in Denmark, Sofia is accosted by a masked man who forces her to disrobe; the next morning she awakens to find herself alone.