Avsnitt 1

Newlyweds Guy and Harriet Pringle arrive in Bucharest, as does the impoverished Prince Yakimov, who takes a temporary job as a journalist for a British newspaper to save himself from destitution . Harriet is introduced to her fellow expatriates (befriending the middle-class Bella, who has married a wealthy local) and to Guy's Romanian friend and admirer Sophie. Their peace is interrupted by the assassination of Romanian PM Călinescu and Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland . Rumours fly of a German invasion of Romania, and Guy, though absorbed in his work and organising social events, is concerned about the family of Jewish student Sasha Drucker, given the antisemitic Romanian regime.