The novel tells the story of the Jew Joachim Israel Behrend, who arrived in Copenhagen in 1783. He was sent to Denmark by his mother for an arranged marriage to a young Jewish woman living there. The story follows him through his development and his marriages, until he becomes a successful, wealthy businessman with connections to the royal family. The story is also about the conditions of the Jews at the end of the 1800s, as well as about the anti-Jewish riots in the capital in 1820, which eventually contributed to Joachim's death.