A group of German boys are ordered to protect a small bridge in their home village during the waning months of the second world war. Truckloads of defeated, cynical Wehrmacht soldiers flee the approaching American troops, but the boys, full of enthusiasm for the "blood and honor" Nazi ideology, stay to defend the useless bridge. The film is based on a West German anti-war novel of the same name, written by Gregor Dorfmeister.

A clearly confused girl is found wandering around Stuttgart and can't be understood, because she's speaking in a foreign language. The police take her to some doctors, who eventually believe they're dealing with a Tibetan. Doctor von Aldenhoff takes the stranger in and begins to educate her according to western European standards. In her new home, the girl, Luscha, gets to know Robert Lorm, a rather well-travelled man, and falls in love with him. Eventually, she decides quite unilaterally that they're going to build a new home and life together. A plaster of paris mask of the girl's face is made for the doctors to keep as a remembrance of Luscha. But as soon as the mold is removed from her face, she suddenly seems to become an entirely different woman.

The action takes place in a central German town in the 1920s. A Jewish factory owner is accused of murdering his accountant. The German nationalist investigating judge, who is determined to have a Jewish perpetrator, still sees Blum as the perpetrator even when evidence of the actual murderer, a former Freikorp fighter, is found. The Social Democratic court president from Berlin sends a criminal investigator to tear apart the judge's chain of evidence.

One day, an exceptionally beautiful girl shows up at Josua Webmann’s pawnshop to pawn a golden harp. Josua’s apprentice, Klaas, immediately sees her as an angel. That evening, she meets him again and dances with him, causing even the previously indifferent Lissy to take notice of Klaas. Meanwhile, Josua worries about his money and negotiates with an instrument dealer who makes him a generous offer for the harp. The next day, the girl and the harp have disappeared again—but she has left behind unexpected wealth.

A poor Hungarian artist falls in love with a wealthy mysterious Parisian girl.