In this apparently lost film, a beautiful dancer's sexual allure is used by an evil cripple to entice men to their deaths. Falling in love with one of the potential victims, she is told by the cripple that he will set her free if her lover, actually a murderer himself, survives and escapes a bizarre labyrinthe which runs beneath the cripple's house.

An adaptation of the eponymous novella by Jeremias Gotthelf.

Ester escapes an orphanage and finds employment with Dr. Hoff and later with dramatist Hugo Mayerling. After reading a play of his she succeeds on stage and marries him.