After his father is murdered by the Nazis in 1938, a young Viennese Jew named Ferry Tobler flees to Prague, where he joins forces with another expatriate and a sympathetic Czech relief worker. Together with other Jewish refugees, the three make their way to Paris, and, after spending time in a French prison camp, eventually escape to Marseille, from where they hope to sail to a safe port.
A deadly car crash sets off three parallel stories of women at crisis points, faltering behind the doors of the same, plain Vienna apartment block.
The hungarian revolution 1956. Judith, an Austrian and her Hungarian friend, Taddek, want to escape to Austria. A friend of theirs, a Viennese photographer, helps organize their escape. Taddek doesn't appear at the arranged meeting place, so Judith and the photographer leave without him. Years pass without a word from Taddek..
Kati, successful advertising manager, dreams of a family with Jonas, who has been her boyfriend since eight years. As he doesn't like the plan at all, they start an argument. Kati finally decides to go to her sister Luise on Christmas instead of flying to Mauritius with Jonas. This turns out to be a bad idea because she isn't the only guest Luise's family has to bear... Kati, successful advertising manager, dreams of a family with Jonas, who has been her boyfriend since eight years. As he doesn't like the plan at all, they start an argument. Kati finally decides to go to her sister Luise on Christmas instead of flying to Mauritius with Jonas. This turns out to be a bad idea because she isn't the only guest Luise's family has to bear...
A doctor, who commits malpractice in a major urban hospital, retreats to a remote house in the countryside. Although he is acquitted, his conscience is not so easily appeased. When a murder occurs and the southern Styria village searches for the culprit, he has to take a stand.
Kati and Jonas have planned to get married secretly during their Christmas trip to Mauritius - but in the end, Kati's entire family gets wind of the plan and shows up at the airport to accompany them.
1969. The Prague Spring has been demolished. New barbed wire installations have been erected. Julia, who is thirteen, has moved with her mother to a village in northern Austria which lies on the Czech border. Julia has not spoken since her father's death. Her isolation increases in the village where she is an outsider. Provoked into proving her courage by some young villagers, she walks into no-man's land. She discovers a forgotten tunnel which leads to a construction site on the Czech side of the border. Julia makes the acquaintance of Roland, a forty-five-year-old surveyor, on "the other side". An ambivalent father-daughter relationship develops between them. Roman is the only one to whom she confides the secret of her border crossings. Due to his affection for her, she regains her ability to speak. And she starts to feel at ease with Alexander, who is her age. Roman makes new plans at Julia's urging. The insurmountable border foritfications will remain vulnerable . . .
Franz Holl, 6 years old, is sent off by his mother and stepfather to live on his father's farm. His father turns out to be a mischievous man who won't grant him any chance in life. The roles are played by amateur actors from Carinthia.
The seedy underbelly of Vienna at night. Mercedes is a femme fatale from Mexico, newly arrived at the Vienna airport with her German boyfriend Rainer, where they have smuggled a kilo of cocaine through customs. Unfortunately for them, the city has just had a major drug crackdown, leaving them without buyers and money. Disgusted with Rainer, Mercedes ditches him and hooks up with Harry, a lonely and bored cab driver who agrees to help her find a buyer for the drugs so she can get some cash and go home. She offers Harry a deal he can't refuse. Is he just another pawn for Mercedes or will her promises help him achieve his hope and dreams? The story careens through the night streets of Vienna, following two amateurs navigating their way through the treacherous world of the drug trade. It's a mood piece with the backdrop of a stifling urban loneliness.
A young ex-convict returns to his home village. But he soon realizes that nothing is the same for him as before.
The married couple Carl and Vera Sylvester live far beyond their means. She is a regular customer at the Dorotheum art auctions, he puts up with Lilli, his lover, and has become addicted to gambling . Carl wants to use the business ruin to make a new start with his wife . He noticesnot that Vera has long since planned an infamous campaign of extermination against him .
