The Girl You Left Behind

Liv endures a viewing of the Glass House. Her friend Mo takes her to a café and explains her boyfriend, Ranic, will not join Liv for Christmas because of his view of the legal case. Mo urges Liv to return the portrait to avoid financial collapse. She asks Liv to think about what David would have done. She thanks Liv for letting her stay and says she plans to move in with him.

Sven summons Liv to his office. He tells her the Goldsteins have withdrawn their contract due to the negative publicity of the case. To keep the firm alive, they must remove the Halston name from the practice. Sven asks Liv to resign her honorary Directorship and work with the Foundation. Devastated and alone, Liv goes home and considers whether to use Sophie’s private papers in court.

In 1917, Sophie and Liliane are transported in a German military truck. Feverish and weak, they endure a stop where local women attack the truck with stones. The truck travels on through a snowy forest.

That night, their guard falls asleep in the van. Liliane urges Sophie to flee, but Sophie refuses, still hoping the Kommandant is taking her to Édouard. She urges Liliane to go without her, but Liliane refuses to abandon her, saying that Sophie’s will be blamed for her escape. She asks Sophie to look after her daughter, Édith. Suddenly, Liliane takes the guard’s gun and dies by suicide.

Paul drives to court with his brother, Greg, and son, Jake. Outside, press and protesters mob Liv. Paul rushes to help her lawyer get her inside. He confronts Janey, accusing her of leaking information and admitting to his relationship with Liv. Before leaving, he slips Liv a note promising to fix the situation.

Paul visits Marianne Andrews. They search a storage cupboard and find Louanne’s 1945 journal. Paul asks Marianne to deliver it to Liv’s legal team without telling them that Paul found it.

It is Friday, the last full day of the trial. In court, Marianne reads an entry from her mother’ journal. This proves that Louanne received the painting from a German woman as a gift in 1945. Christopher Jenks, the opposing counsel, counters with a later entry naming the woman as Liesl. He provides evidence that she was the Kommandant’s wife. This supports his contention that the painting was looted by the Kommandant. He reads a passage describing Liesl frantically scrubbing the back of the portrait before she handed it over, arguing that this is out of guilt.

Jenks then presents records stating Sophie Lefèvre died of Spanish influenza in a German camp, having been sent there by the Kommandant. Shattered, Liv leaves the courtroom. Paul meets her outside, apologizes, and, when she asks him to get a drink, he resigns from his job and goes with her.

Paul takes Liv to Greg’s house, where she meets Jake. Liv admits she expects to lose the case and the house. Overwhelmed with guilt, Paul steps into the garden. Liv follows, reassures him, and says that David’s sudden death shows people matter more than possessions.

Back at the Glass House, Liv turns Sophie’s portrait to the wall. She takes out the papers from Philippe Bessette that accused Sophie of collaboration and burns them to protect Sophie’s reputation.

Paul stays up all night at Greg’s house, combing through case files. By morning he has vanished, leaving a note asking Greg to look after Jake. the day juggling house viewings and waiting for Paul to call. Anxious, she goes to Greg’s bar, where Greg tells her Paul disappeared after obsessing over the case.

Liv spends Sunday alone, fearing Paul has walked away. On Monday morning, before court, she wraps the painting and meets Fran, a homeless acquaintance, for coffee. She braces for the day’s proceedings, not knowing if Paul will return.

On Monday, Liv prepare for court to hear the verdict. She carries the wrapped painting into court as a gesture that she has relinquished it. Before the verdict, she addresses the court, saying that she is sorry for the cost the case has had on David’s legacy. As the judge prepares to speak, Paul bursts in with an elderly woman in a wheelchair, whom he introduces as Édith Béthune, Liliane’s daughter.

Édith tells the court she has crucial information: the painting was not stolen. She testifies that, as a child, she delivered the portrait to Kommandant Hencken at Sophie’s request. Her statement stops the proceedings.

In a flashback, Sophie arrives at a camp and finds Édouard alive; they reunite.

In the courtroom, Édith testifies that Kommandant Hencken arranged freedom for both Sophie and Édouard and sent them to Switzerland. She says Hélène sent her to give the painting to the Kommandant. Édith explains that Hélène wrote a message from Sophie on the back in chalk, that it was “not taken, but given” (361). She also admits that, as a grieving child, she lied to the Kommandant, telling him Sophie had died in the camps to hurt him.

The courtroom erupts. Paul embraces Liv and tells her the painting is hers. The court clerk returns the portrait to Liv. Janey and the Lefèvre brothers watch in disbelief.

A guard offers to escort Liv and Paul out of a back exit to avoid the press. Liv refuses and chooses to leave through the front doors. Holding the painting, she and Paul walk out together to face the public.

Records show Sophie and Édouard lived quietly in Switzerland under assumed names until at least 1926. On Christmas Eve in the present, Liv receives a conciliatory email from Mo. At Paul’s urging, she calls Mo and invites her for Christmas, repairing their friendship.

Liv reads a final letter from Édith that suggests that Sophie and Édouard moved on from Switzerland. She wonders if other portraits of an older Sophie may exist. Inspired, Liv lies in bed with Paul and asks for his help searching for the remaining lost paintings by Édouard Lefèvre.