Das Haus der Träume - Season 1

July 1928: Vicky, who comes from abject poverty, leaves her homeland and goes to Berlin in the hope of a better life. She wants to stay with her friend Doris. But when she arrives in Berlin, Vicky finds out that the elegant address on Doris's letters is wrong. Vicky goes on a search. The trail leads to the Scheunenviertel, a slum area. There Vicky meets the dancer Elsie and the bar pianist Harry. The three witness Doris being pulled dead from the river. The homeless Vicky asks Elsie, who shares a tiny room with two girls, to take her in. Full of hope, Vicky and Elsie apply to be saleswomen at the Jonass department store, which is about to open. When both are taken, the big dream of a life without poverty seems to come true. Unaware that department store owner Arthur Grünberg is in fact on the verge of bankruptcy and that the opening of Jonass is in jeopardy.

While Arthur Grünberg is desperately trying to raise money to complete his department store, Vicky and Elsie imagine themselves as future saleswomen and diligently put goods on the half-finished shelves - for almost no pay! Her friends routinely keep their heads above water thanks to rich cavaliers, but Vicky is reluctant to do so. She is in love with Harry and also sleeps with him without anything in return. She dreams of a self-determined life as a working woman who doesn't need cavaliers to survive. Until she finds out that Jonass may never open. What Vicky doesn't know: Harry is actually not a penniless musician, but the son of the department store owner.

Jonass opens it! To do this, however, Arthur had to make a pact with the nouveau riche Carl Goldmann, who is trying to set his daughter Helene up with Harry. Vicky has no idea of all this and is happy to finally be a saleswoman when she realizes that she is pregnant. from the dream. The Jonass does not employ mothers. Elsie gives Vicky the address of Irmchen Taube, her trusted angel maker. Vicky is just climbing onto Irmchen's kitchen table when Harry appears. Vicky and Harry decide to keep the child. However, Vicky doesn't yet know who Harry really is. When he says it, everything changes. Vicky knows her love is impossible. Again Vicky goes to Irmchen Taube.

Vicky breaks up with Harry, claiming that she aborted the child. In fact, she couldn't bring herself to do it. At Jonass she hides her pregnancy and tries to shine, hoping that the best saleswoman won't be kicked out. In fact, Vicky manages to make the sleepy shoe department the talk of the town. But that won't keep you from being fired. Meanwhile, Harry has broken with his parents and is doing what he's only been able to do in secret: jazz. It doesn't make him rich, but happy. There are first successes, a tour is planned. There Vicky stands in front of his door. Harry learns that she kept the child.

Vicky has been laid off at Jonass and is looking for work – like millions of others. There are none, especially not for pregnant women, the global economic crisis is casting its shadow. Harry sticks to his tour plans, he can't forgive Vicky for lying, he has new dreams. But when Vicky almost suffers a miscarriage, he changes his mind. Harry and Vicky find each other again. A new calamity is already brewing. The economy is reeling and Jonass with it. Once again, Carl Goldmann is the only one who wants to give Arthur Grünberg a loan. And this time he doesn't just associate it with a hope, he makes it a condition: Harry should marry his daughter Helene.

Harry doesn't think about marrying Helene. And Helene doesn't like Harry either. In fact, she's not into men at all. She is studying medicine and has just received a scholarship in America. Vicky, Harry and Helene agree: they don't go along with their parents' plans. Until Harry's beloved mother Alice, long sober, falls back on alcohol out of desperation at the impending ruin. And Carl Goldmann only wants Helene to continue studying if she becomes Frau Grünberg. Harry resists, but Vicky feels that the price of their love is too high. She advises Harry to marry Helene.