A young Anglican clergyman gets on the night express to London at Edinburgh station and joins an elderly gentleman in the compartment. Gradually, the journey gets under way, during which it turns out that both are apparently secret agents.
When British philosopher Harold Hilliard took off for Warsaw to lecture on the Dysteleological Surd, he had no idea that he would soon become embroiled in international espionage. During the trip he tried to open a suitcase he mistook for his own. When a fellow passenger, a Pole with stainless steel teeth, took umbrage, Hilliard put it down to bad manners, but when the same man saw him pick up the wrong coat in the plane, Hilliard realized that he was suspected of spying. The party at the airport to welcome Hilliard only convinced the Polish agent that the British Secret Service was now picking its men with extraordinary cleverness. Hilliard, whose works were little known in England, was warmed by unaccustomed praise but chilled by the apparent certainty of the counter espionage people that he was a British agent whose code name was Whale.
Set during the rise of the Nazi regime, Elisabeth Maurer and Hans Wieland enjoy successful careers as actors in Berlin. Confident in her career, Elisabeth, who is Jewish, ignores the advice of a colleague to leave Germany in the face of increasing anti-Semitism. Believing that he can protect her if she becomes his wife, Hans convinces Elisabeth to marry him. In the following years, as Hans's career thrives, Elisabeth awaits the end of the Nazi terror which bars her from public life. When the situation worsens in 1938 with the Kristallnacht pogrom, Elisabeth decides to leave the country, but Hans, who still believes he can protect her, convinces her to stay with him.
The actress Julia Bach is married to the famous director, Professor Paulus Allmann; however, no one is to know about the marriage. Julia doesn't want a career simply because she has a famous spouse. For that reason, Paulus always has to go on his concert tours alone. It's no wonder then, that he soon starts to feel neglected. These feelings of neglect are encouraged by his ex-wife Hedi, who's always hanging around. When Paulus one day forgets his wife's birthday, she goes on the rampage in the presence of guests. Wounded, Paulus leaves their home. Julia thinks there's only one way to save their marriage: for one year -- until her next birthday -- they are not to see one another. In that period of time, it should be abundantly clear whether they belong together or not.
Although she is known as a patron of the arts, a graceful duchess nevertheless refuses her nephew to marry an enterprising actress in this German melodrama starring Kathe Dorsch and silent screen legend Henny Porten. When Philine (Hilde Krahl), the troupe's ingénue, is rejected as proper marital material by the Duchess of Weissenfels (Porten), Karoline Neuber (Dorsch) creates such a furor that she is banished from the country. A performance at the court at St. Petersburg also ends in disaster for the unhappy actress and abandoned by all, Karoline dies a suicide.
