Confronted by a woman who insults her as a low-born fisher girl without manners, the protagonist defiantly challenges her estranged husband, Athamas, to ask for a divorce in person. Her immediate focus, however, is her missing daughter, Helle, and she vows retaliation if anything happens to the child. The scene shifts to a desperate search, where the protagonist finds Helle in a dangerous situation. The young girl, coughing and terrified, cries for her mother as she faces a peril she may not survive.