The painter Hans Hauser falls head over heels in love with the "Black Forest girl" Bärbele Riederle. He travels to her home village and soon the two realize that they are made for each other.
Caught at the window just before an air-raid warning (WWII) composer Paul tells how he met his wive Anni, a revue star and song writer, how he handled the courtship and the early years of his marriage, inspite of some professional conflicts - his operas were flops, while his wive had one success after the other - they finally found out how they could help each other.
After the two vagabonds Robert and Bertram flee from prison, they get to know the innkeeper’s daughter Lenchen at the “Silver Swan” Inn. Because her father is in desperate need of money, Lenchen is to marry the creditor Biedermeier instead of her beloved military recruit Michel. In order to prevent that, Robert and Bertram travel to the capital and, under false names, manage to make their way into the house of the Jewish commercial advisor Ipelmeyer, to whom Biedermeier is deep in debt. During an evening costume ball, the bums steal the family jewels and give them to Lenchen’s father. Lenchen and Michael get married and Robert and Bertram flee in a balloon into the sky.
La acción se desarrolla en Andalucía, en los años de la ocupación francesa. Carmen, que es la cantante más famosa de todo el país, es una mujer inconstante que reparte sus sentimientos entre tres hombres. Uno de ellos se llama Antonio, y se trata de un antiguo capitán del Ejército regular, que ahora es el jefe de una partida de guerrilleros, con la que da golpes de mano contra las patrullas francesas. El segundo hombre que comparte los afectos de Carmen es José, un sargento de las tropas francesas, cuyos intereses están contrapuestos con los de Antonio, rival en dos frentes. El tercer hombre de la vida de Carmen es un famoso torero de Ronda. Carmen lleva dentro de sí un sino trágico que afecta, fundamentalmente, a todos los hombres que tienen relación con ella.
