The day before chemist Dr. Hans Wynhold leaves for a six months business trip to Africa, he meets chemistry student Christa Weiden. They spend the evening together in St. Pauli and fall in love. She doesn't tell him that she'll start the next day at the chemistry laboratory he works at too, because he says he doesn't like women in "men's jobs". Only after his departure the next day Christa learns about Hans' reputation as a Don Juan. In fear that she'll lose him to another woman, she follows him... and starts a series of complications.
Vienna is celebrating New Year’s Eve 1913/14. It is the year, which will see the outbreak of the First World War. In Hotel Sacher, the mood is excellent; and although the political atmosphere is charged, there’s an undercurrent of hate and intolerance in the air. It is with this background that Nadja, a Russian spy, meets the Austrian civil servant Stefan. He loves her, but comes under suspicion of being an agent because of this love.
