Beautiful Vienna during the Austro-Hungarian era. Lixie, a court councilor's daughter raised in a middle-class family, has fallen in love with the piano teacher Toni. To make a good impression on Lixie's strict father, Toni urgently needs a job. Then chance comes to Lixie's aid. At the Hotel Sacher, she meets Archduke Peter Ferdinand, the very man who could help Toni. But the Archduke only has eyes for Lixie. An unsuitable love affair develops between the two, which quickly escalates into a political scandal in Vienna's high society.

Dr. Franz Duhr, a fashionable doctor in the feudal Austro-Hungarian spa town of Bad Ischl, is said to have "helped" a pregnant girl after a suicide attempt. When he then also wants to establish a home for unmarried mothers, the scandal is complete.

Fabrizio finds refuge from thugs in a convent, and passion in the arms of Lucrezia Borgia.