1809, France. Captain Neuville is called to the front, leaving his future bride heartbroken. Her sister decides to write letters on his behalf to cheer her up. But it all goes south when Neuville reappears.
In 17th Century Amsterdam, an orphaned girl Sophia is forcibly married to a rich and powerful merchant Cornelis Sandvoort - an unhappy "arrangement" that saves her from poverty. After her husband commissions a portrait, she begins a passionate affair with the painter Jan Van Loos, a struggling young artist. Seeking to escape the merchant's ever-reaching grasp, the lovers risk everything and enter the frenzied tulip bulb market, with the hope that the right bulb will make a fortune and buy their freedom.
Ether is a story of a military medical doctor experimenting with science at the beginning of the 20th century in order to get power over other people.