For her research on the life and work of Theodor Storm, the young student Vivian travels to Husum, where she meets Gerd Eversberg, literary scientist and Secretary of the Theodor-Storm-Society. He describes the great poet as an exceptional and passionate free thinker who chose to take unorthodox paths both in his private and his professional lives. The Storm specialist gives vivid accounts of the literary man's humanist and democratic view of the world and his committed acts during the First Schleswig War (1848-1852). He goes into details of Storm's private life, his relationship to his wives and children and deciphers a number of elements in Storm's oeuvre, which he had written in an encrypted and ambiguous style on account of censorship. His interesting personality and the well-researched and passionately orchestrated film arouse a desire to re-discover the work of this great literary figure.