Lauscha, in the year 1890. After the death of their father, sisters Johanna and Marie Steinmann have been left destitute. As women they are not allowed to continue to run the family's glassblowing workshop, so they must seek their luck separately: Johanna as an assistant to the glass dealer Friedhelm Strobel, and Marie as a glass painter in the workshop of Wilhelm Heimer and as wife to his son Thomas.