Nadja upsets a tea break with an unfortunate inquiry about a nutcracker doll Abel is carving. While Nadja is dancing, a boy in a wheelchair and his mother (Mary) move close to the stage and Abel loses his concentration. When Nadja points out Abel's inexperience, George explains to the troupe that he met Abel in Germany four years earlier. Granny Anna adds that Abel was a doctor in a destitute village during an epidemic, when there was not enough money for medicine. When his son Stefan fell ill, Abel turned to crime and was imprisoned. Not knowing why Abel did not go to Stefan after his release from prison, Nadja decides to ask Stefan (the wheelchair-bound boy at the performance with his mother).