After the two vagabonds Robert and Bertram flee from prison, they get to know the innkeeper’s daughter Lenchen at the “Silver Swan” Inn. Because her father is in desperate need of money, Lenchen is to marry the creditor Biedermeier instead of her beloved military recruit Michel. In order to prevent that, Robert and Bertram travel to the capital and, under false names, manage to make their way into the house of the Jewish commercial advisor Ipelmeyer, to whom Biedermeier is deep in debt. During an evening costume ball, the bums steal the family jewels and give them to Lenchen’s father. Lenchen and Michael get married and Robert and Bertram flee in a balloon into the sky.
The French ballet girl Janine, a gifted tap-dancer, dreams of a musical career in Paris. But first she wants to take revenge on Count René who stood up her best friend Charlotte. Janine wants him to fall in love with her and disappoint him afterwards. At a masked ball at which Janine pretends to be a Marquise they have their first meeting. Janine is very disappointed in the "good gentleman", but she does not suspect that this gentleman also makes a pretence. The man whom she holds to be count René is Pierre, a composer and pianist.
The famous tightrope artist Truxa is drinking at the Artisan bar in New York. He meets a young man, Husen, and gives him his stage name Truxa. He is to take the real Truxa's place at a circus show in Wintergarten, Berlin.
