In a hospital, the Protestant pastor Heger and the Catholic chaplain von Imhoff are responsible for pastoral care. Cornelie, a senior doctor, has lost her faith in God after the death of her daughter in the war. One day, Cornelie's former lover and father of her deceased daughter, the actor Gorgas, turns up to visit his friend von Imhoff. During these days, Gorgas invites Heger's ten-year-old daughter to visit him at the fairground, where she has a fatal accident on the swing boat. Hegers seems to be broken by this stroke of fate, but finds support in von Imhoff, who even gives him the strength to stop Gorgas from committing suicide. Cornelie regains her faith and stays with Heger.

Alexander Bessel is a young man in a failing marriage. His wife cheats on him, and so the outbreak of WW1 comes in handy for a change. When young French soldier dies right in front of him Bessel seize the opportunity assuming his identity.

After the family estate is destroyed by fire, Maria rebuilds the farm and leads it to renewed economic success through hard work and discipline. But one day Jasper, her deceased father's brother, returns from America and wants to take over the estate. Although Maria can count on the support of her employees and the villagers, there is a dark secret in her past that Jaspar knows about and wants to use to blackmail the young woman.

The wealthy Frenchman Raoul lives with his mother and his cousin Therese in a magnificent villa on the Riviera. Therese is deeply in love with her relative, but he seems to reciprocate only "brotherly" affection. One day, a visitor arrives: the lustful Lydia, a friend of Therese's, known as a man-eating and amoral woman. It isn't long before Raoul, the master of the house, falls completely under the spell of the blonde siren from abroad, and the two become engaged and eventually married.