Based on an 1884 novel by Julius Stinde, it is a family chronicle set in late nineteenth century Berlin.

Although she is known as a patron of the arts, a graceful duchess nevertheless refuses her nephew to marry an enterprising actress in this German melodrama starring Kathe Dorsch and silent screen legend Henny Porten. When Philine (Hilde Krahl), the troupe's ingénue, is rejected as proper marital material by the Duchess of Weissenfels (Porten), Karoline Neuber (Dorsch) creates such a furor that she is banished from the country. A performance at the court at St. Petersburg also ends in disaster for the unhappy actress and abandoned by all, Karoline dies a suicide.

1921 film by Ewald André Dupont

Baruch Mayer, son of an orthodox rabbi from a poor shtetl in Galizia, decides to break with the family tradition and leave the shtetl to become an actor.

The Venetian merchant Antonio is in a difficult financial situation. To help his friend Bassanio, who is campaigning for the heiress Portia, he goes, although in mutual disgust, to the Jewish money lender Shylock to borrow money from him. If Antonio can not repay the debt Shylock is allowed to cut a pound of meat out of Antonio's body. That is the deal.