Hjalmar
Ekdal is married to Gina, and he thinks he is the father of the 14 year-old
Hedvig.
But a
childhood friend of his, Gregers Werle, tells him that it is his father, the wealthy
merchant Werle, who made his servant girl Gina pregnant before she had met Hjalmar.
Against
everything Gregers expected Hjalmar refuses from then on to have anything to do
with Hedvig, who hitherto had been the apple of his eye. The consequences are
tragic.
Villdunnan was written in 1884.