In the nineteenth century, a young Austrian woman marries into a wealthy family and witnesses the country change through the course of four decades.

An Austrian girl is forced to marry for the sake of the family, rather than for love, which causes her great pain when the man she truly loves commits suicide, rather than see her married to another. Her life takes another turn for the worse when the Nazis rise to power and her Jewish ancestry creates problems. The woman takes steps to do right by herself after vowing to never allow someone else to determine her fate.