Robert Schlag, nicknamed "Beat", is a Berlin club promoter who lives for the excesses of sex, drugs and the city nightlife. His connections to the underworld lead the police to use Beat to try and infiltrate a notorious organ smuggling ring.

Two young people meet. A fateful encounter - the proverbial love at first sight. He is Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, she is Elisabeth von Wittelsbach, Princess of Bavaria and the sister of the woman Franz is to marry…

A Christmas reunion becomes a gateway to the past in this three-part series that explores the intimate complexities of one family's history.