1886, a young Jew Sofie lives in Copenhagen with her loving parents. She is nearly 29, with no marital prospects. An artist, Hans Hojby, meets Sofie and is entranced, asking to paint her parents and also sketching her. She responds, but he’s not Jewish, and the family reacts by encouraging a marriage to Jonas, a homely draper. Sofie accepts this plan, accompanying her new husband to his town and bearing a son. As he withdraws in mental illness, Sofie begins an affair with his brother, and later returns to live with her parents. A confrontation with Hojby is inevitable as is her son’s growing into adulthood and forming his own ideas about religion.
