Berlin in the 1920s. A dazzling place, but times are not only golden. They are marked by poverty and crime. Vicky arrives in the city, led by promises of a better life, she's looking for a job. But as soon as she gets there, her hopes and dreams are met with a cold awakening. With no place to stay and nothing to her name, she hires on to work as a saleswoman at a newly-established, glamorous department store. But the founders are also fighting for survival, just like Vicky. Times are tough. And it's about to get tougher: Vicky falls in love with the seemingly penniless pianist Harry. What she doesn't know yet, he is none other than the son of her boss, the department store owner Arthur. The class divide between them turns into a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, as his father has different plans for Harry. And so begins a love story that will always be impossible. But against all odds - or precisely because of them - it will outlast decades.

Suddenly the Russian Galina reappears in her ex-boyfriend Tom's life and asks him to contact his sister, who heads the crisis team at the Foreign Office. Galina offers herself as a whistleblower to Germany after hackers specifically attacked the computer systems of the Berlin Central Hospital. She has the code that can thwart further attacks, but in return she demands money, asylum and inclusion in a witness protection program for herself and her young daughter.