Der Gelbe Schein plot
Lea is a young woman who lives with her sick father in a Jewish quarter in Warsaw. Lea hopes later to study medicine in St. Petersburg to make her father better. Suddenly her father dies and Ossip Storki, the man who gives her private lessons, is called away to work for the governor. Lea travels to Russia and discovers that Jewish women are only allowed to work in prostitution if they are in possession of a so-called 'yellow passport'. If a woman does not have such a passport, she is sent directly to prison. Lea applies for such a passport and moves into a brothel. In a book she brought she finds the identity papers of Sophie, Storki's sister. Lea decides to use it and applies for a place at the university.