The meticulous court councilor Geiger suddenly realizes: 18-year-old Mariandl, who is applying to study music with him, is his own daughter. Remorsefully, he decides to fulfill his fatherly duties and travels to Dürnstein, where he met Mariandl's mother, Marianne, 19 years ago. She runs an inn that is on the verge of bankruptcy due to a lack of guests. Marianne is forced to marry a wealthy hotelier. But when Geiger suddenly appears before her, old feelings rekindle, and more than just friendship develops between Geiger's secretary, Peter, and Mariandl.

After marrying Hofrat Geiger, Marianne moves to Vienna to be with her husband. She runs the household while her daughter attends the music academy. But Mariandl is heartbroken. She constantly catches her Peter in strange situations with other women. Marianne, on the other hand, constantly has to listen to the innuendo of Franzi, Geiger's long-time housekeeper, who would have loved to be a Hofrat herself. Frustrated, mother and daughter decide to leave Vienna and visit their grandfather. He has inherited a dilapidated farm in the Wachau region, where horses are kept, awaiting shipment to Italian slaughterhouses. Through two benefit concerts, the talented music student Mariandl is able to raise enough money to buy the horses' freedom.