Eric Vonk wakes up from disturbing dreams in which he enacts murders that remain unseen by the audience. He tidies his dingy studio, then wanders the streets of Amsterdam in search of random women whom he brings back to his space for sex. This unsettling mix of violent fantasies, promiscuity, and moments of misogyny doesn’t come from who he is at heart, but from a painful memory: his failed relationship with Olga Stapels. The film then shifts back in time by two years to show how they first met.
Olga picks up Eric when he is hitchhiking, and their chemistry is immediate as they share a car-ride that ends with a charged, impulsive kiss. A traffic accident soon interrupts their budding romance, and Olga’s middle-class mother resents Eric, blaming him for the crash. Yet the bond between the lovers persists, and they reconnect for a passionate affair that is met with quiet sympathy from Olga’s easygoing father. Eventually they marry, and Olga’s mother and her circle reluctantly accept Eric as part of the family.
Sometime later, Eric lands a 5000-guilder commission to carve a sculpture for the hospital garden where his friend Paul works. Olga models for the statue, which is unveiled at a ceremony that the Dutch queen attends. The day’s success for the hospital is dampened by security concerns: Olga’s revealing dress keeps the artist and the model from appearing on the front line. Frustrated, Eric and Olga discard the maquettes into the canals that wind through Amsterdam.
Olga’s father dies from illness soon after, and instead of taking charge of the Stapels family business, Eric takes Olga back to Amsterdam to continue his artistic path while she takes a steadier job on a production line. Olga’s mother feels growing contempt for a Bohemian sculptor who earns little and has little to show for his work, painting a picture of an unsuitably volatile life for her daughter.
The couple’s initial harmony begins to fray as Olga exhibits strange reveries and impulsive behavior. This tension comes to a head at a family gathering in a Chinese restaurant, where Eric is drawn into following Olga to the party and witnesses her flirting openly with a family friend, while the other diners seem to be in on the act. Overwhelmed, he vomits on the attendees and slaps Olga. She leaves him, and he responds by wrecking his studio, destroying anything that reminds him of her. The flashback reaches its point of origin and ends.
Eric remains consumed by his fixation on Olga. Her family refuses him entry until he agrees to a divorce. His brief attempt to reconcile is ruined when Olga’s mother catches him forcing himself onto Olga, and he is banished from her life. Olga later becomes engaged to a wealthy American and returns to collect the rest of her belongings before leaving for the United States. A small, symbolic moment gives Eric a sense of closure as he rescues a wounded seagull and frees it once its wing heals.
Sometime later, a chance glimpse in a bustling commercial center brings back the weight of Olga’s absence. She appears flamboyantly dressed and behaves oddly, revealing that her American experience was a disaster and that she is living with her mother again. She collapses, and Eric carries her to Paul’s hospital, where doctors diagnose a brain tumor. Surgery to remove it is not entirely successful, and Olga’s fate becomes clear: she dies after a seizure. In the quiet aftermath, Eric presents her a wig and Turkish delight—the one comfort she could tolerate—and, after she dies, he walks past the sculpture he made of her and drops the wig in the trash.
