While Bernd is traveling with his wife through the Black Forest in Germany, he comes to realize that there are things hidden behind Ellen's mask that he should have dealt with much sooner. He had not torn the mask off her face for fear of embarrassing her in public and harming their children psychologically. He was a fool not to have unmasked her, he now says, sitting in the office of her psychiatrist and screaming his way out of his poisoned union with her.