The year is 1896. Eliz­a­beth von Schwabach­er, gift­ed daugh­ter of a Jew­ish banker returns home to Berlin from piano stud­ies in Vien­na. Awak­ened to sud­den improve­ments in the oppor­tu­ni­ties open to women, she balks at her par­ents’ expec­ta­tion that she will set­tle down to life as a wife and moth­er. In a bid to estab­lish a life as an eman­ci­pat­ed ​“salon Jew­ess,” she resolves to have an affair with an aris­to­crat­ic suit­or — an escapade that, giv­en her rigid social milieu, has trag­ic consequences.