A fictional account of one year in the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. On Christmas Eve 1877, Elisabeth, once idolized for her beauty, turns 40 and is officially deemed an old woman; she starts trying to maintain her public image.

Jewish aesthete Cioma, 21, does not let anyone take away his joy of life, especially not the Nazis. In 1942, he has to find new ways to make his living in Berlin and escape deportation. In the process he discovers his talent for forgery: not only with passports, but also his own identity.

In 1921, Charles, a young Luxembourgish cartographer is sent to Albania as part of a border commission to gather information on the topography and the people of the region. The country has recently become independent, but it does not yet have clearly defined borders. Back in Paris, Charles gets to report to the Conference of Ambassadors. At first, he is overwhelmed by the impressive architecture and the intimidating grandeur of the event. However, he soon learns that the party of self-serving diplomats has little interest in the future of the people he has just met. With no representative of Albania even present, Charles feels the need to speak up for the young country. Despite breaking protocol in doing so, Charles shares an observation with the quarrelling diplomats that allows them to find a peaceful solution to the question of where to draw the urgently needed borders.