Jenny Bürstenbinder has climbed the social ladder by marrying Kommerzienrat Treibel. The professor's daughter Corinna Schmidt plans to do the same and woos Treibel's son Leopold with charm and wit. But Jenny Treibel lacks an adequate dowry.
Not far from Windsor Castle, the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn visits the German astronomer Friedrich W. Herschel in the summer of 1792. But what begins as an informal afternoon ends in disaster for Haydn: his traditional world view is shaken by Herschel's cosmic experiences.
