In 1921, we follow two women - Marie and Grete - from the same poor Viennese neighborhood, as they try to better the lives of themselves and their families during the period of Austrian postwar hyperinflation.
A young flapper tricks her childhood sweetheart into marrying her. He really loves another woman, but didn't marry her for fear the marriage would end in divorce, like his parents'. Complications ensue.
When her husband marches off to war, Mariana is left in charge of the ancestral castle and is thus on hand when an invading Austrian regiment makes the castle its headquarters.
In Czarist Russia, a young peasant boy is sent to Siberia for insulting the Grand Duchess. Released years later, he joins the fighting to overthrow the royal family. The entire royal family is condemned to death when fighting ceases.
At the center of this social satire is the wealthy and bored couple Irene and Erik. When Erik meets Hilde, who comes from a humble background, one evening in a chic club, he sees an opportunity for the couple to sexually spice up their worn-out relationship and to escape through a ménage à trois.
Baron Tolento lusts for Diane Delatour, his physician's wife, and donates money to their favorite charity, a children's home, in hope of gaining her favor. When Delatour is called away, Tolento inveigles Diane into attending a party at his house. There he threatens to ruin her husband if she does...
Erhard Malm is studying to become an engineer, but support himself as a tutor at Consul Frendin. The consul's daughter Ruth and Erhard get interested in each other.
Celeste de Givray is renowned throughout Europe as the most beautiful and best-dressed model in all Paris. Her press agent DuPont concocts an attention-getting publicity scheme by having Celeste undergo cosmetic surgery, then unveiling her "new" face at a posh fashion show. But thanks to a delay in...
Gunnar Hede is raised by a strict mother, who wants him to become respectable to match his family’s wealth. He is more interested in his grandfather, who started as an itinerant violin player, but got rich by leading a herd of wild reindeer south to market. He falls for a violinist working with a...
Tom Barrett, a motion picture press agent, noting Frances Norcross' resemblance to film star Daphne Dix, offers her passes to the star's personal appearance. While waiting for her fiancé, Johnny Young, Frances is offered $1,000 to impersonate Daphne and successfully appears in her place, assuaging...
A shoemaker purchases a lottery note with two friends, and hides it from his wife for safekeeping. He soon learns that their ticket has the winning numbers but is afraid to tell his colleagues it is missing. Based on the play by Algot Sandberg.
The year is 1820 and a young, promising artist, Olaf Malm, has settled in Rome, Europe’s centre of art at the time. He is in love with Sigrid, but class differences make their love impossible. Olaf Malm dies in a tragic accident; he allegedly drowns in the Tiber, but his body is never found....
