Katja helps young Count Ludwig study for their final exams, and everyone is surprised when he actually passes. Ludwig decides to throw a grand ball. Katja's father, although he will buy suits for her brother, will not pay for a new dress for Katja. In revenge, Katja wears her brother's new tailcoat to the ball. She is rebuffed by everyone until the school's headmaster stands up for her. She acts like a man, drinking and smoking and dancing with women, until she has scandalized Mrs Hyltenius, the social matriarch of the village. Katja's father, very angry, calls her "Slyna" ("Slut") and throws her out of the house. Ludwig takes her back to his country estate, which is lived in by "a horde of wild learned women," a colony of strong-willed independent women who dress and act much like men. The women give Katja a position as maid after she refuses to marry Ludwig on the grounds that she doesn't want to have to visit Mrs Hyltenius, which would be required protocol after the engagement. Ludwig, in despair, bravely attempts to ride the wild horse Beelzebub, who throws him into a ditch. During his recovery, the lovers patch things up, though the same day that their engagement is published, the newspaper also has a scathing gossip column, arranged by Mrs. Hyltenius, about the shocking indecency of women who dress as men. The headmaster meets Mrs Hyltenius in the cemetery. He points out how needlessly cruel she has been. "Soon you will be resting here, where you can move neither hand nor foot; neither tongue nor tooth. Make yourself a soft pillow of kindly memories. Your sleep will be long, my dear." Mrs. Hyltenius then goes to apologize and forgive Katja, and all ends happily.