On a bleak October day, nineteen-year-old Mathea (Thea) sits in a melancholy mood, overwhelmed by her family's escalating financial burdens and her father's worsening physical pain.
For two months, she has been unsuccessfully applying for teaching positions, putting immense pressure on her desire to alleviate her parents' financial struggles. Her anxiety distracts her from tutoring her young brother, Nico, who takes advantage of her daydreaming to escape the room. Upon realizing he left, Thea discovers Nico complaining to their invalid father about her lack of attention, pleading to be sent to a proper school instead. Mr. van Welderen severely reprimands Nico for his disobedience and orders him to apologize, leaving Thea feeling deeply guilty for causing her father stress. After comforting Nico and re-establishing her authority, she manages to lead a productive lesson, recognizing that tutoring her own brother lacks the mutual respect she would receive from foreign students.
Later that afternoon, Thea is called to the living room by her parents. Her father presents a letter offering her a live-in position as a governess for a Dutch family residing in Brussels. Recommended by a close family friend, the position offers a generous salary of three hundred guilders alongside free room and board. Furthermore, it presents an excellent opportunity for Thea to refine her French. However, the realization that she must move away to a foreign city fills her with immense dread. Recognizing her distress, her father kindly tells her she is under no obligation to accept, while her mother gently advises against rejecting such a rare opportunity out of pure emotion, giving her until evening to decide.
Retreating to her bedroom, Thea breaks down in tears. She had always envisioned securing a local position that would allow her to return to a supportive home every evening. The prospect of living alone among strangers in an unfamiliar city terrifies her, yet she understands that refusing the position would be cowardly and unfaithful to her duty of helping her parents. Resolving to face the challenge, she washes her face and decides to commit entirely to the opportunity so her father will not blame himself for her departure.
Thea returns downstairs to announce her final decision. Despite her father’s warnings that she cannot back out once her word is given, she firmly requests that he write the acceptance letter immediately. To maintain an optimistic front, she immediately begins discussing her winter wardrobe preparations with her mother, accepting her new path with determined maturity.