Gerold Plassek is an unsuccessful journalist on a free sheet. As an ex-girlfriend who suddenly has to go abroad and entrusted him with her son Manuel, his everyday life changes suddenly. The critical 14-year-old becomes a real challenge. Manuel has no idea that this "failure" is his father - "Geri" lacks any drive, the local pub is his living room and alcohol is his most reliable friend. But his misanthropic life is moving.
Harri Pinter, 46, has his best days behind him, not only on the outside: in the 80s, the notorious "drecksau" won the Klagenfurt ice-skating team KAC its master title. As trainer of the youth team, he likes to reminisce about his past successes in dim bars drinking beer. When his longtime girlfriend Ines risks making the break with an university professor, his worldview and self-perception starts to falter...
A marriage couple find their daughter drowned in the pool house. At the hospital, the doctor refuses to give up and holds tightly to a remote hope of saving the girl.
A great Empire, once famous for its enlightened traditions, is taken over by a ruthless political establishment. Religious fundamentalists and national separatists are tearing at the fabric of its liberal society. Under the influence of his conservative advisors, the Emperor fails to initiate the reforms that could save the Empire from annihilation. One man alone can avert the cataclysm to come. The year is 1888 and the 600-year-old Empire of Austria-Hungary is at a cross-road of history. Crown-Prince Rudolf, son of fabled Empress Sisi, the most beautiful woman of her time, is the man with the vision and the ability to lead his Empire into the 20th century. Yet his enemies, the all-powerful Prime Minister first and foremost, scheme to isolate Rudolf from his father and from access to power. Against the backdrop of one of the most dangerous, exciting and colorful periods in history, at the dawn of the modern age...
