Heddo Schulenburg

A shoemaker has delusions of grandeur when he inherits from a baron whose life he saved.He prevents his daughter from seeing a mere carpenter, abandons humble old friends, and shows poor judgment by falling for a couple of poseurs.

The river level rises, the dam can no longer hold back the floodwaters – it breaks. Panic erupts, everyone tries to save at least some of their belongings from the rising waters. Those who manage it flee to the farm of old dike captain Doorn. His sons, Peter and Heinrich, help wherever they can. In doing so, they save the local schoolteacher and his beautiful daughter, Renate, from certain death. Both men love Renate, but this rivalry is not the only reason the brothers become enemies. While Heinrich, a trained engineer, advocates for river regulation to prevent further dam breaches, Peter vehemently argues for reinforcing the dam. When old Doorn dies and Peter proves to be the sole heir, Heinrich leaves home.

This film claims that the Germanic tribes predated the knowledge of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs, then compares these findings with the contemporary German regime of Adolf Hitler.

A few days before the planned wedding of the chief inheritor von Halleborg, he experiences a terrible blow: his beloved bride Julia has a riding accident and dies of her injuries. Von Halleborg becomes a broken man and chooses not to waste another moment thinking of love -- his heart belongs to Julia ... forever. In doing so, von Halleborg runs the risk of losing his entire estate, for the conditions of inheritance make all to clear that if he does not marry by his 45th birthday, the estate is to be turned over to someone else. Von Halleborg had already made peace with this fact until he discovers that the future lord of the manor will be his nephew Oskar, a selfish and ruthless scoundrel, concerned only with money.

A typical woman's fate at the turn of the century, from the first love mistake to the arranged marriage and further disappointments.