Synopsis
Germany in the late 18th century. Two beautiful, aristocratic sisters meet a young man who is infatuated by both of them: by Caroline, bold, exuberant, unhappily married; and Charlotte, shy, rational, intense. The young man is none other than the writer, playwright, philosopher and hothead Friedrich Schiller, whose career has just begun. Both sisters long for love, but only one, Charlotte, is free. Neither noble nor wealthy, Schiller is no match for Charlotte, whose mother wants her to make a “good” marriage. Yet in the wake of the social and political upheavals rocking France on the eve of the Revolution, new forms of cohabitation emerge. One of them is the ménage à trois – which is what Caroline urges them to try. Schiller is to marry Charlotte, but they will never be far from Caroline. Tension mounts between the sisters, however, who have always loved each other dearly and shared all their secrets and desires. Though Schiller delicately tends to the needs and wishes of his two mistresses, the sisters’ own pact seems increasingly like an elusive dream...