Charité

Ida Lenze drags herself to the Berlin Charite with acute appendicitis, where young staff doctor Emil Behring saves her life--yet he still can’t catch the eye of Robert Koch. Meanwhile, Crown Prince Friedrich may have cancer of the larynx.

Ida suffers under the strict thumb of Deaconess Matron Martha but catches the eye of several suitors. The Reich suffers upheaval with the death of Friedrich, and Behring finds favor with the clinic’s director.

Ida struggles with her feelings for Georg Tischendorf and Dr. Behring as thousands of physicians from around the world arrive in Berlin for the World Medical Convention to hear Koch speak.

Treating contagious cases carries its dangers: Nurse Therese comes down with TB. On Ida's urgent encouragement, Koch dares to take the next step with his tuberculine.

News of Koch's miracle drug travels the world. Berlin is overrun by consumption patients and doctors, but the tuberculine fails to heal more and more patients. Meanwhile, Behring's remedy does heal a diphtheria patient.

Koch becomes an outcast, and his failure also unjustly discredits Ehrlich and Behring's work. But when Virchow gives a public endorsement of Behring's remedy it throws Behring into a manic euphoria, inconsiderate of everyone around him.