Die Verführerin Adele Spitzeder

Without a penny to her name, Adele Spitzeder arrives in Munich in 1865. The wannabe actress is plunged in debt and cannot afford the luxurious lifestyle she and her mother are used to. Yet then she comes up with an unusual idea: She founds a bank, thus entering a male-dominated domain. She uses the newly opened accounts of her many, mostly low-income customers to pay of the guaranteed ten percent interest of older clients. Thus, she practically invents the pyramid scheme.

Due to her charm and negotiation skills, the bank quickly expands, and while this finances Adele's extravagant life, it will soon mean financial ruin for tens of thousands of her customers. Driven by greed and her need to be accepted, Adele constantly shifts between her two personalities: the poor people's lady with the golden heart and the cold-blooded career woman with big dreams and a scandalous love life. Her success makes her enemies though, and eventually her business collapses. Convicted of fraud, Adele ends up in prison.