Fernand has escaped from prison and finds shelter in the traveling circus Barlay, where his former wife Flora works as a predator trainer. Their son, now grown up, Marcel is an art rider and does not know that Fernand is his father. Marcel loves Yvonne, the daughter of director Barlay. He is against the connection, sends his daughter to Italy and convinces Marcel that Yvonne does not return his feelings.

The holidays are over and the students of the Schiller high school in Baldenburg. The new term will wake up with the chorale , my heart, and sing before Director Bartmann reads a deed of gift from Manfred Werner from Bahia in Brazil .

In the very oldfashioned town of Ostend suddenly 13 suitcases are delivered to the hotel, with a note, that O.F. will be here soon and needs 6 rooms (the hotel just has five). This event, probably the biggest in 300 years, starts a small wave of modernisation, yet everybody is wondering who O.F. is. Journalist Stix and architect Stark have an idea how to use this event. They proclaim, that O.F. is a former citizen of the town, who became a millionaire abroad. They tell their fellow citizens that the town still needs modernisation, like better hotels, nightclubs, shops, etc. And soon, Ostend is a boomtown, then a capital. The architect, responsible for the new buildings is finaly allowed to marry the mayor's daughter, while Stix marries the cabaret star and the widowed mayor his new secretary. The only problem is, O.F. hasn't shown up, while finance experts from all over the world are trying to solve the depression problem.