THE STORY: Elena is married to Dr. Anton Drug, a Viennese psychoanalyst. But in the golden days before the fall of the Empire, she had a love affair with Prince Rudolf Maximilian. After World War I and the expulsion of the aristocracy, Elena developed into a responsible, mature woman, and a devoted wife. A group of her former cronies, some of whom have been living in poverty and exile, return to Vienna to attend a party to which Rudolf is (surreptitiously) invited. Elena’s old friends press her to attend the party. But she refuses, saying the past means nothing to her, but Anton thinks she should go, if only to prove to herself that she has left the past behind. Rudolf, who eeks out an existence abroad as a taxi driver, arrives incognito and immediately sends for Elena. Elena arrives, and for a moment an illusion of gaiety is established. Rudolf makes violent love to Elena, she runs home, and he follows her, determined to renew their affair. But Elena, though caught in the excitement of old memories and still attracted to Rudolf, knows he belongs to the past, and her husband and the present is the better of the two. But she allows Rudolf to hide in her apartment while Anton arranges for him to escape from the country. The experiment of trying to renew a past that no longer has meaning has been successfully carried out.
