Eckbert lives an idyllic life, secluded in a castle deep within a forest in the
Harz Mountains, with his wife Bertha. The two find happiness in their refuge away from the corrupting influences of society. They have no children but enjoy life together. Phillip Walther, Eckbert's one contact with society, shatters this harmony during a visit at the outset of the story. Walther had become a close friend of Eckbert over the years as the two frequently rode about Eckbert's
demesne. Eckbert feels compelled to share his secret with Walther as his only confidant. He invites Walther to stay the night and enjoy
familiarities and dine with Bertha. She reveals the secret of her childhood and begins the
frame story. Bertha escaped from a life of hunger, poverty and abuse at a young age. She found herself at the center of fights between her mother and father. She ran away from their pastoral home, begged on the streets, and made her way into the woods. An old woman took Bertha to a cabin and taught her to weave, spin, and read as they live together with the old woman's animals—a dog and a magical bird. The anthropomorphic bird sings a variety of songs encased by the concept of
Waldeinsamkeit, the feeling of being alone in the forest, and the bird lays a precious stone each day. The birds songs always begin and end with
Waldeinsamkeit. For instance: Bertha and the old woman find this arrangement pleasing, but Bertha yearns to meet a knight from the stories she has read. After six years of living with the old woman, Bertha steals a bag of precious stones and departs the home, taking the bird with her. As she runs away, she realises that the old woman and the dog won't be able to survive without her. She regrets her decision and wants to head back, but then she comes across her childhood village. She finds out about her parents deaths, and decides to head to the city instead of back to the old woman. She rents a house and gets a housekeeper, but she feels threatened by the fact that the bird keeps singing louder, about how he misses the forest. The bird terrifies her and she strangles it as she leaves and marries Eckbert. Walther listens to this story, reassures her that he can imagine the bird, and the dog "Strohmian". Walther and Bertha retire to bed while Eckbert worries whether his familiarity with Walther and the story will compromise him. Bertha becomes ill and lies dying a short time after confessing her sins to Walther. Eckbert suspects Walther may be to blame for Bertha's condition. He believes Walther may have been secretly planning for the death of Bertha. His paranoia and suspicions grow more intense after he realized that Walther revealed the name of Bertha's dog, Strohmian, when she never mentioned it during the story. Eckbert encounters Walther in the woods while on a ride and shoots his friend. Eckbert returns home to find his wife as she dies from a guilty conscience. After the death of his wife and friend, Eckbert finds solace in frequent excursions from his home and befriends a knight named Hugo. Eckbert suffers from a guilty conscience after witnessing his wife's death and murdering his friend. He becomes paranoid and increasingly finds it difficult to disentangle the perception of reality with his imagination. Hugo appears to be his murdered friend Walter and he suspects that Hugo may not be his friend and reveals the secret of Walther's murder. Eckbert fearfully flees into the forest and stumbles upon the place where the old woman found Bertha as a little girl and led her through the forest. He hears a dog barking. He recognizes the sound of the wondrous bird singing. Eventually he meets the old woman who immediately recognizes him. She curses him for Bertha's theft and abrupt departure. The old woman tells Eckbert that she was Walther and Hugo, at the same time, and that he and Bertha are half-siblings from the same noble father. Bertha had been sent away from home to live with a shepherd. This news of his incestuous relationship deeply affects Eckbert's already weakened constitution. He quickly descends into paranoia, delusion, and madness shrieking in agony before he dies. ==Interpretation of Romantic themes==