DIARY OF A LOST GIRL

Thymian Henning, daughter of pharmacist Robert, is seduced by her father’s assistant, Meinert, who abuses her after the girl faints at the sight of his lifeless old maid. Thymian becomes pregnant and the new maid, the wicked Meta, forces her father to give the child up for adoption and send Thymian to a reformatory, after which Meta marries Robert. In the reformatory, Thymian meets Erika, a girl who, like her, resents the harsh discipline imposed on her. Together they manage to escape, with the help of Count Osdorff, Thymian’s friend. As soon as they leave, Thymian searches for her child, but discovering that she is dead, she joins Erika, who works in a brothel. Thymian also becomes a prostitute despite repeatedly trying to gain control over her life. When her father dies Thymian receives a large sum of money and decides to marry Osdorff who, when he finds out that she has given all the money to Meta and her children, commits suicide. Osdorff’s uncle, also a count, takes Thymian under his wing and she becomes one of the directors of the reformatory where she had also been. When her old friend Erika is brought before her as ‘a difficult case who keeps running away from charitable care’, Thymian denounces the school and its ‘charity’.