Hostage-taking in a maximum security prison. Three felons bring three friends with homemade bombs under their control. A police officer who happens to be on duty conducts the negotiation with the highly narcissistic head of the hostage-takers, who are ready for anything.

A conservative and old pensioner tries to seduce a young and graceful woman named Celestine who lives next door and is his tenant. He causes a water pipe burst in her apartment and offers her one of his rooms to stay overnight. Unexpectedly, the same water pipe burst happens in another apartment and Celestine makes the same offer to the romantic and dreamy young Jonas who then also moves in. Both men fight for the same woman.

An all-girl Catholic boarding school near Vienna for the wealthy Austrian elite and their children. The school is thriving, but faith is declining and the upper floors are de­ser­ted. The head of the institution, a young energetic nun, fights with ardor against this decline. Martha, 12, one of the nun’s favorite pupils, is a devoted girl who wishes to expiate the sins of the world. Encouraged by the nun, she is given a penance belt and taken to the abandoned upper floor.

The film is set in the near future, in a world of perfect capitalism. Society is sustained by a class of top achievers; meanwhile, so-called minimum recipients live under sedation in Fortresses of Sleep. The great majority of top achievers view themselves as happy. An outsourced agency has been established for the rest: Life Guidance is charged with turning these individuals into optimal people as well. Alexander has internalized the system but one wrong word to his child triggers Life Guidance. He starts to rebel and encounters the horror of the system in all its brightness and affability.