The film portrays the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in 1914.

A musician is offered a job in Vienna as stage director, but his disagreements with the aristocratic opera manager end in abrupt firing in spite of a mutual attraction. He's quickly engaged by another theatre and becomes famous for his lavish stage productions and fine acting, which begins their golden age with Suppé and Strauss.

After the violent death of a prostitute, her father tries to find the people who are responsible for the fall of the young woman.

Edward Collins wants nothing more than to live a modest life. But as a millionaire with a luxurious villa, chauffeur, and everything his heart desires, women are desperately after him. This time, however, Edward wants to play it safe and, together with his devoted butler, Alfons Heinz Erhardt, hatches a plan. The sweet waitress Ninette Germaine Damar, whom he meets by chance, tells Edward that he is completely penniless. Ninette promptly gets him a temporary job as a parking attendant. But that's only when the complications really begin.

Franz Schubert toils by day as his father’s clerk while secretly composing in Beethoven’s shadow, gaining little recognition until friends persuade publisher Diabelli to host a public performance where he meets and falls for soprano Therese Grob. Abandoning a teaching career, he moves in with artist and poet friends, finds inspiration for the “Erlkönig,” and together with Therese sustains himself by performing his songs.

Retired Hofrat Geiger discovers by chance that he has an illegitimate daughter. He goes to visit her, but is turned away, even though she is in financial difficulties (her inn is very run-down and has no customers). To obtain Austrian citizenship, she marries the Hofrat—planned only on paper—but he is responsible for processing her naturalization and delays it to ensure she stays close to him. At the same time, behind her back, he ensures that her inn is renovated.