Edmund Firsbach

The young Styrian woman Therese Brandl desperately wants to work in the theater and therefore travels by train to Vienna to pursue artistic training. The scholarship granted by the elderly Countess Hoyer is intended to guarantee her financial independence. Unaware that she is to be picked up from the Vienna train station, the student immediately takes a taxi upon arrival and asks for recommendations for both an affordable hotel and a charming little pub. Therese gets approached by an older gentleman, a gray-haired bon vivant with considerable life experience. After several glasses of wine, they leave the establishment together and go to Therese's room. Apparently, things escalate there, and they spend the night together without having been introduced. The surprise is all the greater for Therese when she goes to the drama academy the following day to begin her training: her future teacher is none other than the gallant and lover from the previous night, Dr. Alexander Dahlen.

After meeting up with a charming blonde and her female orchestra on a Danube river steamer, a nobleman who had aspired toward the classics turns to popular music instead.

Nacht der Verwandlung (A Night of Change) stars Gustav Froelich as a globe-circling aviator, a character clearly based on America's Wiley Post. While basking in his celebrity at a nighttime carnival, Froelich romances Rose Stradner, the unhappy wife of brutish Heinrich George. When George refuses to give Stradner her freedom, she takes it anyway, but her fling with Froelich is doomed to disappointment. Our hero learns the hard way that one can be in a teeming crowd, yet still be all alone. Leading lady Stradner later resettled in Hollywood, where she appeared in such films as The Last Gangster and Keys to the Kingdom.

Christof Peleikis is a seasoned sailor who once served as a helmsman on many ships. Since having a wife and child, he works as a fisherman and lives in a small village. When a ship gets into trouble off the coast one day, Christof rushes to its aid. He manages to save the ship and its crew, but one of the helmsmen is killed. Christof is eventually persuaded by the alluring captain's wife, Evelyn, to take the man's place. Without saying goodbye to his family, he sets sail...