After the theft of a priceless Van Gogh from a Parisian museum, Maigret follows his chief suspect to Lausanne where the suspect is found murdered.

Film based on a play written by Elias Canetti.

The three friends Pat, Nicoletta and Sissy are in their 30s and actually lead very decent lives. But that alone does not satisfy them: Like cats of prey, they are on the hunt for happiness, which they seek in relationships with the opposite sex.

Young Sonja is accused of murdering her boyfriend Manfred. The film reveals her background, which remains hidden in court: the half-orphan girl becomes pregnant by Manfred, has an abortion and is sent to a reformatory for it. Manfred gets her pregnant again and then leaves her; desperate and humiliated, she shoots him. In court she remains defiant and silent. On the last day of the hearing, a deus ex machina appears: the figure skater Hans-Jürgen Bäumler, Sonja's great idol, descends from the sky and floats with her over the roofs of Regensburg.

At the court of Frederick William I of Prussia, highly political marriage plans are being forged. Princess Wilhelmine's parents want her to marry into the English or Austrian royal family so that she can become queen or even empress. But she is in love with the crown prince of the small principality of Bayreuth...