A sensitive girl is sent to an all-girls boarding school and develops a romantic attachment to one of her teachers.
Ilona, the bored wife of an easily distracted professor, falls in love with his friend Tibor, a world-traveler and ladykiller. Although she pursues him, he declines to take advantage of the situation, because she's married to his best friend. Only after her husband shows an interest in a co-worker is it possible for a happy ending to take place for the two new couples.
In 1885, famous New York Metropolitan Opera singer Maddalena dall' Orto is scheduled to perform at a festival in the German residence of Ilmingen. It soon becomes obvious that she is non other than Magda von Schwartze, who left the town eight years ago against her father's wishes to become a singer.
