Maler Pratt, an artist, refuses to sell his paintings as he thinks that they still need improvement before being publicly exhibited, but his wife Monika thinks differently and sells them because she thinks they are good...and they need the money. As he only signs an "M" on his work, Monika has no difficulty in claiming she is "M", but problems arrive when she is commissioned to do a large mural and Maler refuses to help her out. However, his creative spirit gets the best of him and he does the mural which is widely acclaimed to be a great work of art. Felder , an art dealer, is not overly pleased with this turn of events as he has been pleading with Monika to divorce her shiftless husband and marry him.

The two main people in the story are Anna, a young girl, who is thought of having the ability to heal people mysteriously. Elisabeth is a young - middle aged aristocratic woman, that is disabled and puts all her hopes in meeting Anna and having her disability heal by her. A strange ambivalent relationship develops between the two women.