The love of a young Austrian aristocrat to a circus rider is put on a heavy load test when becomes obvious that the former officer has killed the brother of the young woman, a traitor of the country, in the duel.

A sympathetic bandit chief supports the cause of freedom in Naples against the Bourbon King Ferdinand.

The story of a marriage over time, based on a play by Jan de Hartog. Maria Schell and O. W. Fischer play an aristocratic Austrian couple who meet during the imperial era and experience the first five decades of the 20th century together: temptations and transgressions, world wars, economic crisis, the death of their son in the war. They experience good times and bad times and always remain cheerful, just as the Ferris wheel in Vienna's Prater continues to turn.

In 1815 Vienna, a corsetmaker falls in love with a valet.

The young Gaby is happily married to the musician Peter but cannot ignore the impression that his friend Michael, a violin virtuoso, makes on her. Even when Peter falls seriously ill, she cannot forget her love for Michael. Torn between the two men, Gaby sees only one way out...