In1850s Frankfurt, a Jewish girl named Hannah Meyer entersthe town asylum, rumoured to be suffering from nymphomania.She is treated byDr Heinrich Hoffmann, physician and famed author of the book of children's cautionary tales, Struwwelpeter,whouses everymethodfrom ice packs to electrodesin an effort to cure her. Nothing works, until he resorts to talking -- telling her anecdotes from his youth, revealingthecase historiesof Hannah's fellow patients, confessing to his troubled home life. Only then does Hannah begin to yield herhauntingtale of love, prejudice and transgression.