Vienna, 1930. Marianne is the daughter of the "Zauberkönig", the owner of a shop selling practical jokes. She dumps her fiancé Oscar, a butcher for Alfred, a street-wise gambler, with whom she has fallen head over heels in love. For his part, Alfred leaves Valerie, an elderly and well-off tobacconist. This "idyllic" relationship doesn't last very long since Alfred is soon fed up with a respectable life - that is with his baby son and Marianne. He hands over the baby to his mother and grandmother who hate the "brat" born out of wedlock. Then he abandons Marianne. She makes her living as a striptease dancer and eventually lands in prison. But all ends "well" and everybody is moraly satisfied: The butcher generously forgives Marianne. The baby has died in the meantime, thanks to his grandmother who exposed him to the cold night air. Oscar will do his best to make Marianne remember how much she is indebted to him... Movie version of Ödön von Horvath's bitter, piercing and tragic comedy which satirizes the lower middle-class in pre-war Vienna.