Buda is mastered by the Turks. Student Gábor and his companion flee a troop into the castle, just in the garden of Gül Baba. Gábor and Leila, the daughter of Gül Baba fall in love with each other. Ali pasha, who wants to marry the girl, has the two Hungarians caught in order to let them be executed.
Baracs Pista, engineer at the construction site of a railway line near the Korláthy estate, falls in love with Rolla, a countess disguised as a peasant girl. The count is giving a party as he wants the railway line to go across his lands.
Dömötör, a headwaiter, and Rudi, his friend, a conductor, are dismissed. Later, they return as guests. Dömötör is seen sporting a false beard, now the spitting image of count Rod-Igor Su-Arezew, the world-famous lion-hunter.