Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (managed by brothers Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn how to be a servant. He learns under Lisa with seven other men, learning bizarre lessons about movement, drawing circles, and servility. He requests a more spacious room. No other pupils come, and none leave for work. Johannes is dissatisfied, demanding, and disinterested in the school's operations. Lisa is stunning, at first tightly controlled and later on the point of a nervous breakdown. There's a scent of incest. Jakob is drawn to Lisa, and perhaps she to him. She becomes catatonic as winter approaches. Things worsen; Johannes observes that all of this has occurred since Jakob arrived. Is there a cause and effect relationship?