Germany in the 1920s. Everything is wonderful in the life of successful art critic Bruno Kretschmar: he has a comfortable wife, Anneliese, a wonderful daughter, Irma, and a great job. Kretschmar himself will soon be fifty, and it would seem that life will continue to flow calmly and leisurely. But one day at the cinema, he meets Magda Peters, a sixteen-year-old girl from a poor family who dreams of becoming an actress. Magda keeps the theater clean and checks tickets. Kretschmar, who had never cheated on his wife before, falls in love. He resolves never to go to that cinema again, but the flame blazing within him cannot be extinguished. This passion will change his whole life, like an optical image in a camera obscura.