Maria has been living in a retirement home in Vienna for almost two years, but she is far from finished with life. She tries to break up the monotonous routine with creative ideas, much to the chagrin of the prickly home manager, who wants to manage her oldies with as little stress as possible. However, the residents are grateful for any change of pace, and former bar pianist Jakob in particular loves Maria's boisterous vitality. He keeps telling her about his East Prussian homeland and his childhood friend Paul, whom he lost sight of after the war.

The once successful director Hans has reached the low point of his career. He finds himself trapped in an acting revenge fantasy spun for him by dead actresses living their lives in hell, at the end of which he dies.