Life on the Danube is essentially determined by two factors: the river itself, and the often strange idiosyncrasies of the people who live along its banks. They are of all types: fishermen and graveyard wardens, Buddhist monks, allotment holders on the Danube Island, stranded shippers, tramps and soldiers. They are all linked by the huge current against which they are swimming. The film tells of all these people, their stories and longings, tranquil images by an unobtrusive camera tell of the innumerable people who drowned and are now buried in the "Cemetery of the Unknown" in Albern, likewise, of the Romanian shipper who has been sitting tight with his wife on his tug in Vienna for almost a year, because the blockade of the Danube in the former Yugoslavia prevents him from going home.