Rudolf Prack

After marrying Hofrat Geiger, Marianne moves to Vienna to be with her husband. She runs the household while her daughter attends the music academy. But Mariandl is heartbroken. She constantly catches her Peter in strange situations with other women. Marianne, on the other hand, constantly has to listen to the innuendo of Franzi, Geiger's long-time housekeeper, who would have loved to be a Hofrat herself. Frustrated, mother and daughter decide to leave Vienna and visit their grandfather. He has inherited a dilapidated farm in the Wachau region, where horses are kept, awaiting shipment to Italian slaughterhouses. Through two benefit concerts, the talented music student Mariandl is able to raise enough money to buy the horses' freedom.

The painter Hans Hauser falls head over heels in love with the "Black Forest girl" Bärbele Riederle. He travels to her home village and soon the two realize that they are made for each other.

In 1910, the landlord's daughter Agnes from the Steiermark gets to know the diplomat Hans. They have a short love affair and then part from one another. Hans gets sent to Beijing, where he marries and American and has a son with her. Agnes, too, has a son by Hans and moves to Vienna, where she works in a restaurant. She is still in love with Hans ...

Shortly before the First World War, the son of a Prague butcher is called up for military service in the Austro-Hungarian Army of Emperor Franz Joseph, proving to be a very incompetent recruit.

Susanne is the hostess who gives comfort to the visitors to her hotel. All of the vices in the country are heavily taxed, including drinking and making love. Susanne and a group of nude women try to give some relief to the beleaguered and overtaxed clientele.

Against her father’s wishes, the ringmaster Wallner, Helga forms a connection with the wild animal trainer Peter. After he is almost killed during an appearance, he promises his mistress, that he’ll never work with wild animals again. From that point on, he works with Helga on safe horse numbers. When Helga finds out from Peter’s friend Otto, that Peter would rather work with wild animals again, she doesn’t want to stand in the way of her beloved’s dreams. Helga disappears and leaves Otto enough money to buy Peter a new group of lions. For a long time, Peter and Helga do not see one another, though neither can forget the other. When Helga hears from Otto one day, that Peter is practicing a very dangerous number involving wild animals, during which Otto is to play the “lead”, Helga makes a fatal decision, so she might see Peter again.