A couple learn that the husband’s old school friend, now a famous and wealthy painter, will be aboard the same ship to spend his honeymoon with his new bride. The husband is quite anxious to reacquaint himself with this dear friend whom he has not seen for 20 years. As the painter and his veiled wife board the ship with an oblong box, looking so much like a coffin, the husband tells his wife that the painter has procured a priceless painting of such dimensions that it could only fit into this specially constructed box. When finally they meet, the painter is less than enthusiastic about meeting his old friend and brushes him off, hurrying to the cabins he has taken aboard the ship. As the first night approaches the couple observe the wife sneaking off to their second cabin, hear the lid of the box being opened, and the painter weeping violently and broken-heartedly throughout the night. What is really in the box? Why do they have two cabins? Why is the painter so sorrowful in the night, and truculent to everyone in the day?