Samuel Kohanim, the head of one of the oldest Jewish families in West Prussian Osche, is accustomed to average misfortune. His wife Mindel, brusque and taciturn by nature, has borne him seven daughters. The "seven biblical plagues," as the Kohanim daughters are called, test their father's patience: Selma, who drives everyone crazy with her religious quirks, Martha, who constantly invents outrageous lies, Fanny, who cannot be married off, the wild child Elli, and finally Franziska, "the catastrophe on call," beautiful, proud, and headstrong. But a male heir is missing, as the crown prince dies on March 10, 1902, shortly after his birth. After the upheavals of World War I, the Kohanim family seeks refuge in Berlin. While Martha marries into high Berlin society and her husband Leopold becomes a Chr.