Johanna and Arnold Melzer are a well-coordinated team. He takes care of the kitchen, and she looks after the guests of their picturesque inn on the southern Styrian wine route. When Arnold runs off with the young kitchen assistant Valentina, leaving behind a mountain of debt, Johanna is shocked. Savings bank manager Josef Kappl grants her another loan, but he has some ulterior motives.

The last years of Heinrich George's life are reconstructed with documentary footage and play scenes. His son Götz, named after Heinrich's favorite role of the peasant war hero from Goethe's play "Götz von Berlichingen", plays scenes from his father's life and allows his enormous creative power to shine through. Nothing is left out, nothing glossed over in this story of a man with many facets. Götz George, one of Germany's best-known actors, is at the center of this homage, which is also a reappraisal of the contradictions in his father's life. As the only follower from the acting profession, Heinrich George had to pay with his life. He was not officially rehabilitated until 1998.