In mid-1920s Milwaukee, Dolly Oesterreich née Korschel and her husband Fred Oesterreich, the textile king of the Midwest, married for reasons other than love. In lust, Fred wanted a trophy wife, one who would make him feel good and boost his ego, which means she needing to dote on him at all times, especially in public. And Dolly wanted a meal ticket away from her humble background. She ends up taking a lover in the form of impressionable young Otto Sanhuber, the repairman who was sent to fix her sewing machine. In captivating Otto completely, she is also able to convince him, he who is all alone in the world, to live clandestinely in her and Fred's attic so they can be together during the day while Fred is at work, but this means that Otto is confined to the house to not arouse the suspicion of neighbors who may see him coming and going. This situation leads to Otto being able to hear Dolly's goings-on with Fred while he's stuck in the attic at night, and to indulge in writing pulp crime fiction. While Otto is not naive enough to believe that Dolly truly loves him, he still dreams of the two of them ultimately living as husband and wife. With the onset of the Great Depression, the situation changes enough for Dolly and Otto to believe that they can have their cake and eat it too, with their individual agendas being different--although on the surface they're the same--and ultimately being in conflict with each other.—Huggo