Elle is a young entrepreneur who wants to lead her grandmother Margot's fashion house into a new era. She is in a relationship with Thilo, the son of an influential Hamburg family. After Elle's grandmother receives anonymous threats, Ben, who has been in prison, is assigned as her bodyguard. Elle is torn between Thilo and Ben. As Elle delves deeper into Ben's world, she learns secrets about Thilo that could jeopardize her grandmother's life's work.
Vienna, Austria, 1912. The brilliant painter Oskar Kokoschka, considered one of the main representatives of the expressionist movement, has a tumultuous relationship, both professional and romantic, with the composer Alma Mahler.
Austria in the last years of the monarchy: Wilhelm Kasda, Lieutenant of the Infantry, lives the life of a young officer. These include small, irrelevant affairs like those with Steffi. Steffi is a simple young woman. Kasda does not realize that her devotion is real love. After a night at the hotel, Kasda gives her a bill and disappears. A few years later, in June 1914, Kasda was visited by a former comrade, Lieutenant von Bogner. He had to resign years ago for gambling debts, is now married, works as a cashier in an office and has embezzled money.
In a small port town at the end of the 19th century children are disappearing. A mysterious man in black who stalks the town may be Death itself. And nine-year-old Laurin is suffering terrifying dreams and hallucinations of a man carrying a sack and frightened children calling for help from behind closed windows.
Private eye Dold, a specialist in surveillance tasks, is sent to investigate a Frankfurt bordello boss. He's a pain in the butt for many in the red-light district and is to be overthrown to pave the way for financially strong speculators to lucratively redevelop the area. Dold, who always saw his work as morally justified, comes to doubt the rightness of his actions far too late.