As a young couple stops and rests in a small village inn, the man is abducted by Death and is sequestered behind a huge doorless, windowless wall. The woman finds a mystic entrance and is met by Death, who tells her three separate stories set in exotic locales, all involving circumstances similar to hers.

Äls, a young woman from Sweden living in Hamburg in the summer months attracts a newly married explorer, Albrecht Froben who has just returned to his native city. But although Äls seems to be 'life itself', she suffers from a tropical disease which is slowly killing her. Froben is torn between Äls and his wife Octavia, who he seen as a kind of 'heavenly' counterpart to the earthy and beguiling Äls.

An emancipated Princess, who has just returned home to her court in the Balkans from England, goes in disguise to a servants’ bal and falls in love with an alleged caterer, who turns out next day to be a lieutenant of the guard. Without letting on to her masquerade, she makes sure he climbs the ranks quickly. At the same time, she tries to thwart her engagement to an unpopular prince.

A decent small-town citizen named Fridolin Biedermann travels to Berlin and wants to finally experience something. And he succeeds. First he falls into the hands of a couple of crooks who rip him off terribly, and - back home - the law...

After a bad losing streak, Lisa Freyberg wants to sell her inherited horse stall. Trainer Roberts, however, is successful in making the stall profitable again. Lisa's new passion for horses, however, is proving to be a losing streak for her engagement to her estate neighbor Thermalen. She's hoping for a new victory with her horse Arabella and has the apprentice Otto bring the horse to the competition in Dresden. Otto, however, takes the train to Dresden with his first love, Ossi la Planta and leaves the job to the grooms. But neither the horse nor the grooms show up in Dresden!

Charlie, a very gifted, young acrobat, cannot find employment. A dancer and colleague, whom he trained, has gotten him a job as a stagehand at a vaudeville theatre. After a number of chaotic events and some highs and lows - none of which ever discourage him - his hour arrives: an act can't go on and "Akrobat schööön" can finally make his grand entrance.

Harry Yquem buys his beloved wife some jewelry in a place where underworld middlemen trade in fake and stolen goods. By chance, he spots a man with whom his wife had an affair in the past.

In San Francisco, well-known sportsman Kay Hoog announces to a club that he has found a message in a bottle with a map drawn by a Harvard professor who has gone missing. The map tells of a lost Incan civilization that possesses an immense treasure. Hoog immediately plans an expedition to find it. But Lio Sha, the head of a criminal organization known as the Spiders, is determined to get the treasure for herself and plans a rival expedition.

When we last saw Kay Hoog (millionaire adventurer, courageous hunk), he’d been beset with tragedy. Having escaped an ancient Incan city by the skin of his gleaming teeth, Hoog looked forward to a few years of settled life with his (amicably) captured Incan lovely, Naela. But the past struck quickly. Hoog’s arch-nemesis, the homicidal femme Lio Sha, murdered Naela on the very grounds of Hoog’s estate, prompting him to swear revenge upon her and her criminal organization, the Spiders. Now he must find them, as the Spiders continue their global quest for the Buddha-head Diamond. The head, it’s said, has the power to restore Asia to world dominance.