Aglaia is a country girl living in a small village in 1920s Greece. She is "disgraced" after becoming pregnant and even though her mother and grandmother perform an abortion, she is not welcome to stay in the village. Her mother manages to place her as a servant in the rich household of an army Major in Athens. Most of the film centers on Aglaia's interactions with the Major, his wife and the Major's orderly, Pericles. A significant part of the story involves the political situation in Greece at the time, and the disastrous Asia Minor campaign, which obviously intrudes into the Major's household. Overall, a carefully executed film giving a faithful rendition of the era and exploring the sexual mores of the time, exposing the double standards of the society that it portrays.