Symphony in Illusion

A contrast betwwen reality and illusion. The women prepare the stage for a poetical war play and quarrel over trifles. The war interlude is serious and concise: the embittered women starve a countrywoman and her baby because she married one of the enemy before the war. The outcasts' only friends are a wanton and a lunatic. After the play the mood has changed. The lasdies still fight, but they are subdued and realize that anti-war talk is of no avail: loud chatter still leaves them in the dark.