Melchior Sinclaire is waiting for his daughter Marianne to return home. After a month his pain and sorrow turns into anger, and in a fit of rage he organizes an auction at his estate, where all the family's possessions should be sold, so there is nothing left for Marianne to inherit. When the news reaches him that Marianne has actually been isolated because of having smallpox. he closes the auction brusquely, and goes to Ekeby to bring Marianne back home. When Gösta finds out that Marianne is gone, he feels betrayed and turns away from her. The countess Märta returns to Borg and her son Henrik Dohna after many years abroad. Like everybody else she finds her son stupid, and cannot understand why the lovely Elisabet agreed to marry him. The high sheriff Scharling hosts a big party at his estate, while the former Mistress of Ekeby happens to be incarcerated in a side wing. Elisabet Dohna asks Gösta Berling to help his former Mistress to escape. While Gösta pretends to abduct Elisabet, and all the guests pursue him, two of the Cavaliers open the door to the jail.
—Maths Jesperson {maths.jesperson1@comhem.se}