The first part of "The White Horses of Vienna" takes place in the home of an unnamed doctor who lives with his wife and two sons at the foot of a mountain range in Austria. The doctor often climbs the mountain at night, and one night he sprains his ankle. The injury is severe enough that he will be unable to care for his patients for several weeks, so he writes to the hospital in Vienna for a studentdoctor to come to his town and take care of his patients. While bedridden, the elderly doctor makes puppets.

Three days later, Dr. Heine arrives from Vienna. Realizing that the young man is Jewish, the elderly doctor's wife is stunned. She is unhappy about having to share their home with a Jew, and she knows that the rest of the townspeople also do not like Jews. However, as...