Helen and Manders are in love and wish to marry. Her parents object to his poverty and want her to marry Alving, a notorious rake, who is wealthy and powerful. Manders protests. The family physician also objects because of the result such a match would mean on the children, but Helen's parents laugh at these new-fangled notions. The doctor then appeals to Alving, who laughs him to scorn. Urged on by her parents, ambitious Helen, disregarding all warnings, marries Alving. Later Helen discovers a liaison between her husband and a young married woman. She contemplates leaving her husband and seeks her physicians advice, but he declines to give it. She then sees her pastor, who advises her to adhere to convention and her husband. Meanwhile, the young married woman gives birth to a child by Alving, and the physician agrees to bring the father to see it and keep the real parentage secret. Helen also bears a boy named Oswald. When Oswald is nine, Alving dies, a victim of his excesses.