Urban life in the Middle Ages in Germany from 1355 onwards (well before Dürer, Luther, paper and electricity) is the focus of this story, which is attentively accompanied by the harlequin of the Imperial Castle. It is the time of the "Holy Empire of the German Nation" and the ruler is Emperor Charles IV.

The ambitious Jakob Gruber works at the castle as a groom and thus in the lower social class. He rises through the ranks to become a magister and marries the patrician's daughter Alma. But his happiness does not last long, as an adversary is always on his heels from the very beginning and finally brings about a showdown when the plague breaks out.
Many of the places in the story can still be visited today.