In the first of Hartl's two Mozart biographies, Hans Holt plays the robust and dashing composer who, in keeping with the spirit of the film's time of origin, sets out into the world like a soldier of art after his falling out with the Salzburg authorities. Instead of conquering lands, he conquers the hearts of young ladies, like one of his most famous creations.

The operetta is one of the greatest stage works by Johann Strauss. It combines the lively waltz melodies of the golden Viennese operetta era with the fiery Csárdás sounds of Hungarian folk music. In 1954, Arthur Rabenalt filmed the operetta with Paul Hörbiger and Margit Saad in the main roles: A small village in the Puszt. A young refugee son advertises the hand of his daughter at his neighbour, a pig breeder, and even fulfils the demand for a noble title, as the gypsies living on his property have raised him to a gypsy baron. But then he falls in love with a young gypsy.

In Vienna, during the 1848 Revolution, opera singer Antonia Corvelli marries Detlev von Blossin, a rich landowner. But, as she refuses to give up her career, her infuriated husband returns to Pomerania without her. After falling into the clutches of the cruel and wicked count Stefan Oginski, whose lover she unfortunately becomes, Antonia has no other choice but to pass for dead in order to escape him. She then returns to Italy where she joins small theater companies under various aliases. Until one day she is overtaken by her fate...