Hamburg, 1838 - Sophie Achtmann is the youngest, somewhat charmless daughter of an ambitious merchant family. She knows the role her family has assigned her: she must secure a good marriage and thus increase the Achtmanns' credit, like her older and more beautiful cousin. But Sophie fears she will never find a husband her grandfather will accept. And she is not the only one who despairs of the task assigned to her: Her brothers also struggle with their fate, each in their own way. But then a young French abbot shows up in Hamburg who always has the right answers for each of them, who always seems to be there when needed. Sophie and her brothers become friends with Leander - not suspecting his true reasons, not suspecting that they are only a means to an end and that his real goal is a completely different member of the Achtmanns... Alster Diamonds is a historical novel taking place in the German city Hamburg at the river Alster in the middle of the Nineteenth Century. Please read the content note first.