How can we get rid of our debts in the quickest, but not entirely painless way? If one is celibate, the good old tried and tested recipe is already a given. Marry a rich lady. The girl in question, Edit Zsámbéki, is already available, but there are still a few snags. Our hero, Dr. Géza Gerleszegi Gerle, the supervisor of the Beneficial Ladies' Orphanage in Buda, has a girlfriend, a dancer named Piri Leleményi, who causes such a scandal when she is abandoned that the country and the world will forget her.