Alone in the observation car, Edith Gerhardt watches the falling snow and drifts into memories of her childhood, her parents, her late husband, and the Matheson children, Anna and Tommy, whom she cared for as if they were her own. She remembers six years of tending to them despite being hired as a housekeeper, and she affirms to herself that her affection for them was genuine.

Edith admits that when forced to choose sides, she chose Germany over the Mathesons. She recalls viewing Kenneth Wentworth as "Der Spinne"—the spider—and recounts the day he visited the Matheson home when she was alone. He confronted her with a photograph from 1934 showing Edith and her husband in Nazi uniforms, using it to expose her past and pressure her.

Kenneth offered her a deal: in exchange for the incriminating photo and a large sum of money, Edith would hide business files around Arthur Matheson's office. Although he framed it as a proposition, his threat made clear it was coercion. When Edith asked whose side would benefit, Kenneth declared allegiance only to himself but hinted her actions would aid Germany. Edith agreed, telling herself she was doing it "for Germany."

Only later did Edith learn the human cost: a train explosion, Tommy Matheson torn apart, Arthur Matheson arrested, disgraced, and murdered. By then, enriched and entangled, she felt unable to back out and continued the deception alongside her co-conspirators.

As she watches the snow, Edith accepts Anna’s earlier accusation: her actions helped no one but herself and the conspirators. Soldiers died, lives were ruined, Germany still lost the war, and she never returned home—proof, she realizes, that confronting the changed Germany would expose the futility of what she had done.

This insight strikes her like a lightning bolt: it was all a mistake. She regrets betraying her employers and destroying their family. Pulling her gaze from the ceiling, she notices someone approaching silently from behind, sees the distorted reflection in the window, turns with a gasp, and addresses the figure as "Grauer Geist."