Interview with Simon Schama, British historian (in a room at The Ritz hotel on Piccadilly in London, overlooking Green Park). Schama talks about the beauty of history that he recognized as a child, his Jewish background, the necessity of history, because it offers a counterbalance to the dangerous limitations of the present and his poetic approach to history instead of finding out historical facts. Schama discusses a passage from his book 'Landscape and Memory' that is about his journey through Poland, from which his family was expelled.

This episode consists of the gathering. Twenty of the portrayed guests come together for an evening-filling exchange of thoughts in the De Zaaijer gallery on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, preceded by a visit to the exhibition 'Of Beauty and Consolation' in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.