Louise Brooks

In Diary of a Lost Girl, Louise Brooks plays Thymiane Henning, the innocent and naive daughter of pharmacist Robert Henning (Josef Rovenský). Thymiane is raped by her father's assistant Meinert (Fritz Rasp) and gives birth to an illegitimate child. Meinert is revealed to be the father by an entry in Thymiane's diary, and she is forced to leave the baby with a midwife and attend a strict reform school for wayward girls. Rebelling against the school's rigid discipline, Thymiane and her friend Erika (Edith Meinhard) escape, but they are separated, and Thymiane's relief is short-lived. She discovers that her baby is dead, and after despondently wandering the streets, she re-unites with Erika, who is working in a brothel. In the end, Thymiane also becomes a prostitute, but she has profited from her misfortune by becoming more mature and gaining control of her own life.