Alfred is highly successful in applying scientific finds to business ideas. With his fathers approval he leads the family company to an international standing. His personal relations are more complicated and he prefers writing letters to sensual touch. His increasingly contested and complicated life is narrated in sketches with true sense of presence and delicate details in gestures, speech and mimics, all set in beautiful costumes, interiors and townscape. The enigma of his altruistic deed is gradually brought to understanding.