Goethe returns from Switzerland to find himself back home in Weimar, suffering from writer’s block. It doesn’t matter how quiet his young son August is, or how lovingly his wife Christiane looks after him. Ultimately, it’s his brother-in-law, Christian August Vulpius – also a writer, much despised by Goethe as a hack – who proves an unlikely source of aid. Aid that Goethe does not want yet desperately needs.