The series is based on the aristocratic Guldenburg family and deals with their various relationships and problems. They live outside Hamburg at Castle Guldenburg, which is set on a large farm that's also the site of the family's brewery, their chief income source. A Hamburg family, the Balbecks, are the rival beer-brewers and seek to buy out the Guldenburgs; then Thomas von Guldenburg falls in love with Catherine (Kitty) Balbeck. The Guldenburgs themselves are not a unified family. Herta, the dowager Countess, never really approved of Christine, the present Countess. Christine's husband (Herta's son) has died, leaving her with two children, Susanne (Nana) and Alexander (Sacha). There are also two children from the Count's first marriage: Thomas and Evelyn. Evelyn is married to Achim Lauritzen, who works for the Balbecks and attempts to undermine the Guldenburgs. Christine is the principal heroine as she struggles to keep the family from bankruptcy--and from the Balbecks buying them out. Then yet another challenge emerges with the appearance of her dead husband's mistress Carini di Angeli and her child.
—MoS <ptxian01@sonnenberg.uct.ac.za>