Harald Eberhard

The film presents the political events surrounding the Anschluss in March of 1938 through the lives of Carola Hell, a popular young actress at the prestigious Theater in der Josefstadt, and Martin Hofmann, the Jewish journalist she plans to marry. When we encounter the couple in the lovely springtime weather their future is full of promise. They are determined to stay clear of politics. Yet in the climate of the time, nobody of her prominence or his religion can remain apolitical. Although Martin's journalist friend, Drechsler, calls to inform them that the Nazis plan to take over Austria soon, they concentrate on their work and their private happiness and dismiss the warnings.

The actor Holger Miesbach can no longer pursue this or any other profession, for psychological reasons and despite ongoing psychiatric treatment. While his mother offers telephone sex, where she pretends to be a minor and always forgets to get paid, he devotes himself to painting, but above all to his childhood passion for collecting autographs. When the actress Gloria Mundi, who had celebrated success as a teenager with revealing scenes, but who had killed her mother and her lover in Hollywood in 1961, returns to Berlin, Holger's penchant for the washed-up star becomes obsessive.