1919: WWI has just ended, old imperial empires have collapsed and Europe is swept up in a wave of modern ideas. Young Doerte Helm arrives at the newly-founded Bauhaus art school in Weimar thrilled by the innovative approach of its director, the architect Walter Gropius. Like so many others, she becomes a true disciple of the new movement but something more to Gropius as they fall in love. They are young, resilient, and radical and the school becomes a breeding ground for modernity, jazz, innovative architecture, and feminism. While the Bauhaus forges a new approach to life and with it new hopes, inflation leaves many hungry and worried about the future. As the relationship between Gropius and Doerte continues it creates a scandal threatening the very existence of the Bauhaus. At stake is the destiny of the school of art that would go on to shape the 20th century like no other.