On their honeymoon in St. Moritz,a new husband who is much older than his young bride is driven to despair when he thinks she prefers to spend her time with a younger man there, an actor.

Theodor Fontane's novel about a young girl who as a teenager marries a stiff bureaucrat, has a love affair out of boredom and loneliness and has to suffer the consequences years later should be well known.

The likeable and carefree Grand Duke of Abacco is in dire straits. There is no money left to service the State’s debt; the main creditor is looking forward to expropriating the entire Duchy. The marriage with Olga, Grand Duchess of Russia, would solve everything, but a crucial letter of hers about the engagement has been stolen. Besides, a bunch of revolutionaries and a dubious businessman have other plans regarding the Grand Duke. With the intrusion of adventurer Philipp Collins into the Grand Duke’s affairs, a series of frantic chases, plots and counter-plots begins…

August Pipin is a very reliable and loyal cashier who is always level-headed, no matter which trouble faces him. One day that suddenly changes and a fiasco breaks loose.

The gifted painter Alexander Poschinger receives a financial windfall. His friends Paul and Sepp, both painters, too, aren't in the slightest bit surprise by his success, since he only paints rich women. These women come to Alexander, because whomever he paints looks pretty on the canvas. But valauble paintings from an earlier time show quite well what Alexander is capable of. In a shopping center, Alexander makes the acquaintanceship of a women, with whom he immediately falls in love. She, however, disappears --- and didn't even give him his name (ah, true, deep love). A short time later, he sees her again at a Fasching ball. She is wearing a golden mask, which practically hides her entire face. This supposedly unknown woman falls in love with Alexander and becomes his lover the next day.

Miss Annemarie Tessmer is a clerk in the house of the manufacturer Herman Schilling and she is indispensable. She is exploited by all the family members and her own life is completely in the background. Herman Schilling wants his daughter Thea merry with the representative for foreign affairs Dr. Richard Rauch. However, after a number of dramatic complications, Richard chooses for the good, selfless and hardworking Annemarie.

The opera singer Maddalena had been cast out by her family after they learned she was to bear the child of a banker, von Keller, who had seduced and abandoned her. Her return to her native city has her father warn her to remain away, because she is a threat to her family, and her sister Marie's wedding. However, von Keller threatens the reputation of her family with an underhanded banking scheme. He commits suicide, and Maddalena is reconciled with her family.

Nora and Peter constantly fight and wish to divorce. Nora's uncle Eberhard, however, believes the two belong together and comes up with a plan to bring the two back together again: as a lawyer, who is processing the divorce, he explains to them that the paperwork for the divorce is completed, but will only go into effect once they undertake a reconciliation attempt. For the first reconciliation meeting, Eberhard enlists the help of his friend Christa and together, they turn Nora into such a hot tamale, that Peter burns with jealousy that any other man might look at her. At the second meeting of the two, which takes place a year later (how long do divorces in Nazi Germany take?!?!), Nora plays the girl abandoned by everyone. In the interim, she's given birth to Peter's son -- which apparently does not count as a reconciliation -- and Peter has become a successful composer. When Nora again disappears after this meeting, Peter does all he can to win her back.

The German estate owner Corner travels to Marseilles, looking for his daughter. He had a relationship with a French aristocrat before the World War and knows she was pregnant, when he had to return to Germany. The War separated them however and the mother died giving birth to his child. He knows neither the name of his daughter, nor where she is living. A lawyer named Beauchamps is tasked with finding her and one days introduces a young singer named Isabel to him. She is with great probability the one, who is being sought. She follows her father back to Germany, but only with great reluctance.

As the son of a fashion house owner in Zurich, Hans Haberland apparently can offer his lovers any article of clothing, for which they're willing to sell themselves. His current girl-toy Lizzie wants this fantastic, sky blue dress -- but it's that dress exactly, which his father has just sold to a business buddy in Berlin. Oh, the shortages and traumas of war one has to put up with!