Hamburg, 1892: Cholera shakes the city by the Elbe, claiming thousands of victims. When Martha's mother dies, she must secure her family's survival. The young woman from the impoverished backstreets manages to get an apprenticeship at the Eppendorfer Hospital and works her way up to become an operating room nurse. While the doctors are in a race against time, Hamburg is also undergoing political upheaval: dockworkers are on strike, women are fighting for the right to vote and for the rights of prostitutes. Martha joins the women's movement while simultaneously fighting her own personal battle. For she has not only discovered her love for medicine but also, against the strict rules of the hospital, for a young man.