A process for the recovery of ε-caprolactam from extract water of polycaprolactam obtained by hydrolytic polymerization, wherein the extract water is concentrated, subsequently contained oligomers are depolymerized, non-depolymerizable impurities are separated, water and low-boiling impurities are removed, wherein for adjusting the purity of the recovered ε-caprolactam and the energy consumption used for the process a part of the product is removed from the process as intermediate products.