Roberto Bolle smuggles himself as a stowaway on an ocean liner that of Hamburg gen New York sets sail. On board is also his lover Barbara Shadwell, whom he wants to marry, but who, at the request of her mother, the syrup millionaire Ceila Shadwell, should marry the oatmeal millionaire David.

Double murderer Dr. Crippen is using every means possible to search for a manuscript that he suspects is in the possession of the daughter of the man who was executed in his place.

The journalist Julia Schiller has kicked out her faithless husband Wolf, but her teenage daughters Anna and Lena and the cheeky twins Anton and Philipp keep her busy. When her sprightly aunt Isolde starts working as a hobby detective on the trail of a poisoner in her retirement home, the children sense an adventure and help her. But then Isolde suddenly disappeared too. Julia is very worried and asks Wolf for help again.

In 1876, Englishman Henry Wickham breaks Brazil's rubber monopoly. Although exporting rubber tree seeds is punishable by death, he illegally transports the valuable seeds out of the country after a dangerous expedition through the Amazon region.

The socialist dream collapses.