Vienna before the First World War: Clarissa Schuhmeister grows up in the monastery. Strict discipline determines her life until she meets the Frenchman Léonard and falls in love with him. Just when she expects a child from him, the First World War tears the happy couple apart. Out of pragmatism, Clarissa marries Gottfried, a deserter, with whom she makes a painful yet realistic agreement so that he will not be sent back to war. But she never feels love for him because she can not forget Léonard.

Vienna in 1931. Fanny, the daughter of a Vienna police trainer, meets the Chinese police officer Ma Yunlong, who is completing specialist training in Vienna. The shy acquaintance quickly turns into great love. Against the will of her parents, Fanny travels to China on her 18th birthday to marry Yunlong. At his side, Fanny begins a new life in the Middle Kingdom, which is characterized by deprivation and painful turns due to the multiple political upheavals.

An economics expert from the West is contracted by a large firm to assist in the reorganization of a debt-ridden steel plant in the former Eastern Bloc. Believing himself to be eagerly awaited, he finds that his position has already been taken: Another man has already begun the job in his name, obviously with official approval. What first appears to be a strange mix-up soon turns into a threat to his existence when he discovers that not only his professional, but also his private identity has been assumed by the stranger.

Tommi Fischer, a newly divorced copywriter is looking for a replacement mother for his son. When he falls for the emancipated costume designer Evelyn he soon finds himself in the undesired role of a stay-at-home dad.

Tommy can't take it anymore. At home, the 14-year-old Vienna boy is the only man among many women: Sister, mom, grandma and great-grandma tugging at Tommy's nerves, also the schoolboy suffers from lovesickness. Nothing left to do but get out so Tommy travels to his father Hubert. Shortly after Tommy arrives there, grandma Lore-Mu and the rest of the clan join…