The young, dissolute Mathias, in conflict with his father, doesn't hesitate to set fire to his father's forge. When he returns to the farm after many years and falls unhappily in love with the maid Anna, Mathias stirs things up again...
In Vienna, the director of a sanatorium is telling writer Kristinus the story of a strange case. The very rich and dandy-esque Baron von Stroom had fallen in love with an actress but could not conquer her. One day he acquired a Chinese clay figure of a Mandarin, a talisman whose possessor is said...
