The movie started with a young girl without parents, that was taken somewhere in a carriage by a kind older black man.

He basically told her the story of her mother – a woman who was forced to become a prostitute/courtesan, later lovingly married an artist who dies of illness (pest?) while she was pregnant – finally she delivered the child on her own, with a mirror placed in front of her bed.

The black guy (a good friend of her) and she used some kind of ruse to live in comfort in the end – and invite the little girl to live with them.