Eduard Spieß

Herr von Lips is a wealthy landowner, surrounded by money and luxury. But what he lacks is a wife, who really loves him. So he comes up with the plan to mingle among the people in simple clothing to find the missing bride. Three fine friends --- "fine", that is, as long as the money doesn't run out --- wish to set him up with the egoistic hat maker Mathilde. Her employer, Kathi, who has no idea that von Lips is a rich man, falls in love with him for whom he is.

Vienna, sometime around 1680: Augustin makes fun of Leopold I mistress and in doing so, stirs up the passions of the people against the luxury-enjoying rulers, who neglect their people. He is arrested and sent to prison. When the plague breaks out, he manages to get out of prison, but accidentally ends up in a mass grave for victims of the plague