Anna is a factory worker in East Germany. Her five-year-old son Jochen lives with his grandparents in the West and Anna wants him to live with her, so she abducts him. Along the way she meets Carl who helps her with her son and they fall in love.

Vienna during the fin de siecle. Farmer's daughter Anuschka has to sell the farm after her father's death to the rich but mean farmer's wife Nowarek and her friendly son Jaro. Anuschka goes to Vienna and starts to work as a housemaid until she is wrongly accused of theft.