As Anton’s suspicions over the missing title deeds weaken his trust in Nina, their relationship deteriorates under the combined strain of poverty, Josef’s illness and death, family hostility, and religious prejudice, and although Nina continues to insist upon both her innocence and her love, the pain of being doubted by the man for whom she has sacrificed so much drives her toward despair and an attempted death on the bridge, from which Rebecca, the Jewish woman who has herself loved Anton, rescues her and offers the compassion that begins to restore what suspicion has nearly destroyed. Anton ultimately accepts Nina’s faithfulness and the two are married before leaving Prague to begin a new life in the West, while Rebecca relinquishes her own hopes and supports their union, bringing the novel to a conclusion in which love crosses religious and communal boundaries but survives only after jealousy and distrust have nearly ruined it, and in which trust, tolerance, generosity, and personal sacrifice prove stronger than the prejudices surrounding both Christian and Jew.