Griet is a sixteen years old girl. She lived whit her parents in Delft, in the seventeenth century. When her father got an accident in a factory where he used to paint tiles, he got partially blind. Ever since that accident, Griet became the wage-earner of the family by means of being a maid. She had going work by the family Vermeer. They lived in the Oude Langendijk, in a very Catholic neighbourhood. She is Protestant raised and she had to grow accustomed to the new neighborhood. It’s a great transition for her. Only the Sundays she could go home and because of that she hadn’t go to the Masses. Misses Vermeer, her children and her mother were not appealing to her. On the contrary they didn’t appreciate her. So her new exist as maid is very hard and difficult for her, but Griet did her tasks very well. In the house of the family Vermeer hung a lot of paintings. A lot of paintings were depict the Holy Virgin Maria and Jesus Christ, what isn’t a custom for Protestant’s. And she got used to it. The most of the paintings were painting by Johannes himself. Griet is interested in him, his paintings and how he work. And for his part he got attention for Griet. That’s because of she is so calm and peaceful. And she always watching his paintings. Steady she could do more in the whole household than she was meant for. Mister Vermeer saw her intelligence and how she was working. He wants her to help him with his paintings. Griet liked to work with him. They’re so different from each other, various backgrounds, lifestyles, education. Their separate courtship they keep secret, inconspicuous as possible, because it’s impossible for both of them.
Griet had to go to the local butcher every week. The butcher’s boy, Pieter, who saw her every week, fell totally in love with Griet. But Griet fell nothing for him. Pieter knew about her courtship with mister Vermeer. After a long time he asked her to marry him. Griets’ mother, father and sister weren’t going well. Chiefly financial were do doing bad. When her mother heard about the proposal of marriage from Pieter, her mother wants her to grant the proposal, because of the badly economical situation. Because Griet didn’t love Pieter. She didn’t marry him. But she reassure her mother by keeping contact with Pieter. Meanwhile in the house from the family Vermeer, Griet only just wants to be in the atelier from Johannes. In his atelier she might mix the dyes and colors for him. Both of the families knew about the good relationship between Griet and Vermeer. The whole city, Delft, was speaking about their courtship. Much people were speaking badly. That Johannes was interested in Griet became unburdened when he wanted to paint her. He painted her with the pearls from his wife Catherina. When she find out what was happening, she was very jealous and mad. She fired Griet and might never come back. But Griet came back. Griet married with Pieter. Although she didn’t loved him. She was always still having feelings for Vermeer. Ten years later, she was working at markets, as a meat wife with her husband Pieter. But city Delft was blessed with new gossips. Painter Vermeer is Griet deceased. He had written a letter before he died. In his letter he was saying that the pearls who Griet was wearing when he painted her, he wanted to give them to her. So Griet get back to the Oude Langendijk to collect the pearls. Catherina didn’t like her coming…