Summary A pretty and modest provincial girl, Anna, leaves for the capital city to study. She is hitchhiking on the motorway when a company car stops to pick her up. The driver, a graduate medical student named Fanis, explains that he does this job because he is in need of money to care from his gravely ill mother. Fanis sets aside part of his house for the girl to stay in, and soon falls in love with her. Family obligations force Anna to abandon her studies and return to the village, where she marries a fellow-villager, moneylender Varnavas. This man, however, has led Anna’s father to a premature death by helping him accumulate an overwhelming burden of debt. After his mother’s death, Fanis goes to the village and tries to persuade the girl to follow him to Athens. He succeeds through the good offices of a priest. Fanis promises to complete his studies and become the village doctor, and, of course, marry Anna and have children with her.