The turn of the 19th to the 20th century. The European balance of power begins to falter. Two very different boys grow up during this time: David Rosendahl, the son of one of Berlin's most modern meat manufacturers; Martin, a foundling raised by monks and later suffering under the tyranny of his adoptive father Franz Kreidler. They have no idea that their paths and destinies will cross on the battlefield of the First World War. But this cataclysm is only the prelude to the social and political developments that increasingly lead to the next catastrophe from the 1920s onwards.