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The film tells the story of the life of the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig in exile, covering the period from 1936 to 1942, until the writer's death. Zweig (very convincingly played by Joseph Hader, an Austrian actor and writer) settles in Brazil with his secretary Lotte, who has recently become his second wife. The locals treat him well, Zweig and Lotte travel around the province and study the lives of ordinary Brazilians engaged in the cultivation of sugar cane. The mayor of the provincial district is so excited by the arrival of the writer that he invites a local amateur orchestra, which diligently plays Strauss to please the guest. The disharmonious sounds, in which Strauss is barely discernible, bring tears to Stefan Zweig. He is touched by such an attitude. Brazil has luxurious nature, filled with sunshine, exotic birds, colorful architecture, open, good-natured people who are hospitable and kind to the writer in exile. Smiles, tears, confessions - he has all this here. But in his homeland everything is different. And this is painful for Zweig. Emigrants fleeing Germany need help. A number of countries have already stopped accepting emigrants. Zweig flies to New York, where his first wife Friederike (Barbara Sukowa) and daughters now live. A reproach of conscience for him is that Friederike's apartment has become a headquarters for helping Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, who arrive in America without means. And these were still saved. The reality of others became concentration camps and executions. Friederike receives hundreds of letters addressed to Zweig, and in each one there is a cry for help. Barbara Sukova in a cameo role managed to express the humiliation of the flight, when the consul literally took her and her daughters by the hand, led them out of the crowd of refugees and put them on a ship in front of hundreds of people. And jealousy - after all, it is not she who is with Stefan now, but Lotte. And forgiveness - the moment of the meeting of two women who love the writer was tense. Zweig fusses, knocks on the doors of embassies and consulates, looks for money to help, including his former enemies and offenders. And he himself dreams of a small room with a desk, and to let no one into it. And he constantly asks himself - does literature matter next to such a crazy reality? The writer returns to Brazil, where he and Lotte live in Petropolis, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro.