Out of love for his adoptive mother, Carl Brenner allows himself to be accused and imprisoned because of an illegal operation carried out by Doctor Stefan Brenner, the legitimate son of Mrs. Brenner. A few years later, Stefan died of alcoholism and Carl made a name for himself under his name.
To win the heart of a rather simple minded young man who doesn't seem to care much for women, a young foreign lady takes a job as the chambermaid to the man's sister in law.
The intersecting lives of neighbors in a courtyard apartment building in Vienna,including a football player related to the concierge,a new blonde maid hired by the wife of a baron,whom both the athlete and a baron flirt with,and a deadbeat tenant who fakes his suicide.
The first film adaptation, and most faithful, of Noel Coward's 1929 operetta Bitter Sweet. This tells the story of Sarah Linden's romance, the tale begins with Sarah, now older, reminiscing about her first love.