During the start of the war, a young female art student goes and does an artist residency at the diplomatic agency. She is tasked to make a series of portraits of government officials and young generals that wished to be remembered.
She lives in a boarding house next to the agency, the house is mainly used by female students training to be mathematical calculators or translators for the secret service.
During one of the meal times in the large mess hall the young artist makes the acquaintance of another young woman who is fighting for the worker's rights.
Some days later there is a Tram accident, the artist accidentally (one would suspect) stands in front of the Tram making it swerve off the tracks. In trying to avoid her it rams an army carrier with generals in it. One of these generals ends up marrying the artist. They live in a sunny villa with 3 servants. They treat their servants well (which is unusual for the time). During this time the artist gives birth to a healthy boy and 2 years later a daughter. Both are raised by nannies and then sent to boarding school, the war has started in earnest and the general is sent off, leading his battalion. During his time away she frequently sends him small etchings of plants, self-portraits or ones of their children during school holidays.
They meet at a delegation in a town near the fighting, two months later they meet again and for the last time during the war. As they part she tells him she is pregnant again, she suspects from their meeting 2 months ago. She sends him more etchings and states it is a difficult pregnancy. Turns out they are twin boys, upon receiving the news the general gives his men a speech about fighting to make this country better for their sons and daughters.
After the last battle, after the bomb went off in the main city killing the leaders of the old government, the general comes home, with one leg amputated.
The doctor gives specific instructions for his recovery, one of which is that he not sleep in the same bed as his wife. The artist is not a nurturing kind woman and as such spends time with him but does not nurse him.
One morning the general wakes with a woman in his arms, he is pleased because he assumes it is his wife. However it is a servant, he gets really angry and for the first time since the war stands up shouting. The artist rushes in and sends the young servant and other maids down to the parlour (where she will deal with her), then claim that it is high time that the general returns to their shared bed.
She sends the young maid away after a thorough verbal beating in front of the other maids. Sending her off she gives her fair pay for the time she has worked for them but tells her not to show up at their property ever again.
That night the artist tells her husband her body is aged and shows marks of bearing their 4 children. To him she is beautiful anyway, she seems amused and claims they are totally up to the challenge of making love with only 3 legs between them. He wants to take his time because he has been dreaming of this moment for the last 3 years they have been apart. Ditto for her, he is surprised that she has not taken a lover during that whole time, she laughs and says there were more than enough offers, but none compared to the general.
20 years later a reporter comes to the house and wants to interview the staff, having a general audience with the general who grants him permission to roam the house and speak to all his workers. The reporter is trying to dig up specifics about the war. Turns out the general was working against the old government, despite being a general in its army. The battles he fought had very low casualties, all his men were extremely loyal to him and none gave a statement.
Turns out all the artist's artworks sent to the general during the war had hidden messages in them. That is how the artist communicated secret information from the rebellion to the general on the front to sway the battles. All her etchings are collected and analysed. With a simple geometric Ratio, every image has an anomaly that to the untrained eye simply looks like amateur mistakes. When viewed together it is evident each anomaly is intentional. Upon closer inspection, the hatching of lines spells out a morse coded message.