A Tyrolean rifle regiment adopt a young baby girl they have rescued and she becomes the "Daughter of the Regiment". In 1811, as a full-grown woman she falls in love with one of the new recruits while the regiment battles French forces during the Napoleonic Wars.

Vienna, a few days before the shots in Sarajevo which would trigger what was first called the Great, later simply the First World War: Job seekers from the crown lands flock to the capital of the empire in search of a better life, even if it's the factory hell . A new social class is growing faster and faster, the city overflows with the poor, lower-class workers and the unemployed. Labor fighters can be heard louder, better, clearer, every day. The nobility strongly suspects its end.

Karl Bockerer is a Viennese original. He survives the ‘great times’ – to his own dismay his birthday is on the same day as the one of the “Führer” – by pretending to be more stupid than he really is, and uncovers, over and over again, the hypocrisy and the uptightness of the epic nonsense in his milieu by means of real and phony naivety. Where Schweijk made a mockery of the ruling system by being a presumptive follower, the Viennese butcher strives against the tide. And he is not alone, has family and friends. His personal braveness protects him neither from the rebellion in his own house, nor from the horrors of total war…

The simple and good-natured coachman Henschel has a sick wife and a deceitful maid who looks after the household. The wife makes him promise never to marry the maid. But after his wife's death, Henschel succumbs to the temptation of the maid.