The film begins in 1881 at Stavoren, a small rural town in the Netherlands, and follows the journey of Katie's family to Amsterdam, where they hope to escape the grinding poverty of their native town by finding work in the capital. Upon their arrival Katie manages to secure employment at a dye-works, but is fired when she refuses to have sex with the company director. She manages to find a job at a hat shop, where, during a business trip to a brothel, she discovers her older sister Mina is working as a prostitute. Later that evening, back at the hat shop, she is brutally raped by the owner and, as an act of revenge, smashes the shop window.