Hans Marr

When Irmgard becomes pregnant from Georg, a free-love disciple, she decides, for the sake of her child, to pretend they are married. The secret plan is to wed his twin brother, John, who will pretend to be Georg in front of the priest. Soon after that happens, Georg disappears and is declared dead. Years later, Irmgard is trying to escape John, who is obsessed with her. In the mountains, she finds a stranger willing to protect her.

Mrs. Hansi Aichinger owns a flourishing fashion house in Berlin in which she employs her two married daughters Hermine and Dora, her sons-in-law and also her youngest, still unmarried daughter Liesel. Only her husband, Professor Hugo Aichinger, doesn’t need to be involved with the company.

Hans, living in Vienna during the Great Depression, intends to drown himself in the river after losing his livelihood. While there he meets a girl named Anna after pulling her from the river.

The Arch-Duke Herr Sixtus especially cares for Arts and particularly for young ballet students. The same is true of the Arch-Duke A.D.C., Herr Count Paul Paladin who shares with the Arch-Duke a special affection for Frau Elisa Jenkins, a young ballet student. Unexpectedly and thanks to a misunderstanding involving Frau Elisa and the Arch-Duke, the young student will become the new Prima Ballerina of the "Wiener Staatsoper".