STRÅMANN                       Fourtenders blades
We have besides.
(…)                                           Three of whom
Are still too infantine to take to heart
A loving father’s absence, when I come
To town for sessions.

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GULDSTAD.
To make a happy bridegroom and a bride
Demands not love alone, bur much beside.
(…)
And marriage? Why, it is a very sea
Of claims and calls, of taxing and exaction
Whose bearing upon love is very small.

Transl. by C. H. Herford.

Mrs Halm's boarding-house in Christiania is the scene of fervent matchmaking between young students and suitable young girls, eagerly watched by elderly aunts and relatives. Mrs Halm has just promised her youngest daughter to theology student Lind, and the young poet Falk is in love with her oldest daughter, Svanhild. Falk is convinced that marriage is an institution of convenience that is incompatible with passionate love. Despite this attitude, he proposes to Svanhild after having discussed their future together. Svanhild's passion for him is equally great, but she comes to doubt the wisdom of a marriage based on pure passion. Falk admits that his love for her will never survive the routine of everyday married life. In the end they agree that their romance can only last if they go separate ways "while the going is good". Falk leaves, and Svanhild announces her engagement to Guldstad, a businessman.