Throughout the film, Katharina's limits are tested, and her dignity, as well as her sanity, is on the line as she tries her best to make her voice heard and the truth known. Lie after lie is printed by "The Paper" and everyone, including Katharina's former friends begins to believe it. After Tötges visits Katharina's mother, who is recovering from surgery in the hospital, her mother dies. He fabricates her last words in his newspaper to give the impression to the readers that she despised her daughter with her dying breath. This aggravates Katharina greatly. Ludwig is captured; Katharina had allowed him to hide out at the country house of Alois Sträubleder, a political leader who was pursuing her romantically and had given her the key to his country villa. The police had earlier taken an expensive ring from her as evidence that she was in contact with the bank robber but it is revealed it was in fact Alois's private gift to her. It turns out that Ludwig was not a bank robber but instead a deserter from the "Bundeswehr" who stole two regiments' pay.