Tragödie einer Leidenschaft

Karin (Eva Bartok) is a brilliant student whose good looks give her an added advantage in assuming the role of a prostitute and exploring Berlin's thriving sex industry. Hired posthaste by nefarious Madame Clavius, the pretty blonde sets about gathering information for her thesis when she discovers that her old friend Madeline has been financing her luxurious lifestyle by working as a call girl in the very same brothel. The situation turns sinister when Madeline reveals to Karin that she has fallen in love and longs to start a new life, but any girl who tries to leave Madame Clavius soon turns up dead. When Madeline admits to considering suicide, Karin hatches a plan for both of them to make a clean break from the brothel and avoid Madame Clavius' deadly wrath.

Germany, 1914: The bourgeois austerity of the small, northern German town in which Ulyssa lives conflicts sharply with her desire to flirt with and be ensnared by charming, young men. That she's married is irrelevant; it's a marriage which exists only on paper. Among all the men Ulyssa flirts with, there is one for which she has genuine affection: Stefen Marbach, an upright and sincere man, far superior to her other men. And, indeed, the two are honest with one another about their feelings, but the outbreak of the First World War separates them. Sometime later, Ulyssa finds out that not only her husband, but Stefan, too, has fallen in battle. The news of this disaster leads her to reconsider and eventually give in to the constant urgings of the Viennese merchant Reindl. Ulyssa joins Reindl in Vienna and lives a life of wealth and comfort, until one day, Stefan shows up.