Nacht der Verwandlung (A Night of Change) stars Gustav Froelich as a globe-circling aviator, a character clearly based on America's Wiley Post. While basking in his celebrity at a nighttime carnival, Froelich romances Rose Stradner, the unhappy wife of brutish Heinrich George. When George refuses to give Stradner her freedom, she takes it anyway, but her fling with Froelich is doomed to disappointment. Our hero learns the hard way that one can be in a teeming crowd, yet still be all alone. Leading lady Stradner later resettled in Hollywood, where she appeared in such films as The Last Gangster and Keys to the Kingdom.

During the Napoleonic occupation of the German states in 1812, a tailor by the name of Anton Wibbel is sentenced to sit in jail for insulting the Emperor. The tailor manages to get out of this by paying off a friend to go to prison in his place. But then, the "phony" prisoner suddenly dies in his cell and everyone now thinks Wibbel is dead.