1788 in Rudolstadt, a small provincial town in Germany. The beautiful Caroline von Beulwitz is unhappily married, longing for love and life. Charlotte von Lengefeld, her shy sister, dreams of finding a husband. The two are a heart and soul, until HE enters their lives: Friedrich Schiller, the man who wrote "The Robbers", an overnight sensation, the espouser of proto-revolutionary republican ideals. Through the hot summer the two women compete for the man.