Zanzibar, 1866: young Sayyida Salme, Princess of Oman and Zanzibar, must flee from her homeland because she is expecting the child of a Christian. She converts to Christianity and marries the father of her child, Heinrich Ruete, a businessman from Hamburg. Back in the Hanseatic City the compulsory metamorphosis from the oriental lady to a German citizen’s wife begins. When her husband is run over by a streetcar, the young Arabic princess embarks on an odyssey across Germany – in search of work. She suffers from homesickness and her own inner conflicts, torn between two religions and cultures. Embedded in the historic framework of the Wilhelmine era, the film tells the tragic life-story of one of the first Muslim women in Germany, whose autobiography “Memoirs of an Arabic Princess from Zanzibar” is read by many people to this day.