Friedrich Harding, a young German man, is the owner of a large ship merchant business, passed down to him through generations. A wealthy man, a doting husband and father, whose life is completely derailed as a cursed plague sweeps through Wisbourg, causing his wife to go mad and his daughters to become sick. Left with no other choice, he seeks help from an occult alchemist, whom he finds himself guiltily attracted to. He doesn't believe in demons at all.