1888: a luthier, Vedder, has to step aside when his home, opposite the recently completed Central Station in Amsterdam, must yield for the planned Victoria Hotel. His cousin Anijs, pharmacist in the Northern provinces of the Netherlands, has gotten into a fix after illegal medical practices, and is looking for a way out. For himself and his wife Martha, but also for a colony of poor peat cutters whom he promises a future in the United States. Committed - or is it pride? - the two of them think up a scheme from which they all will fully benefit. With tragic consequences.
Roos is pretty, successful and in her early-thirties. Every time she dreams of marriage, she gets dumped. When she gets invites to weddings from people all around her, she takes her young intern Daan as her date. She puts herself in awkward situations en falls deeply in love with a handsome doctor. They say one marriage leads to the other, but is he the one she'll say "Yes, I do!" to?
Waldemar Nods, a young man from Suriname, meets the older Dutch woman Rika van der Lans and they fall in love. In pre-WWII Netherlands they could not be more different. The one black, the other white, 17 years between them and on top of that Rika already has four children with another man. They love each other, but then Rika appears to be pregnant.
Bookkeeper Jacob newest client is the talented and flamboyant actress Anne. They first meet each other on her houseboat, the morning after the premiere of Anne's new theatrical play. Anne has made a mess of her personal finances and she has a lot of debt. So much so that she may even have to sell her houseboat. Jacob does what he can to help her.
Five members of the Missing Persons Task Force investigate the mysterious disappearance of 17-year-old Evi. While unraveling the girl's troubled relationship with her parents, which leaves her father as one of the prime suspects, they discover that her life had recently taken a bizarre turn, with the teenager seen at several sex parties, receiving expensive gifts from a shadowy new friend. Was Evi the victim of a pimp, or did her father discover his daughter's double life and lose control?
