
In 1913 Budapest as World War I approaches, young Irisz Leiter arrives in the Hungarian capital with high hopes to work as a milliner at Leiter, the legendary hat store that once belonged to her late parents. But she is quickly sent away by the new owner, Oszkár Brill. While preparations are under way at the store, to host important, wealthy, royal guests, a man abruptly comes to Irisz, looking for a Kálmán Leiter, who he says is her brother. Refusing to leave the city, she follows Kálmán’s tracks, her only link to a lost past. Her quest brings her through the dark streets of Budapest, where only the Leiter hat store shines, into the turmoil of a civilization on the eve of its downfall.
