Harald Meisel runs an inn on the outskirts of Vienna. Business is bad and its mountain of debt is growing steadily. In addition, his wife left him a few years ago and since then he has had countless suicide attempts. Axel Mozart lives with his girlfriend Lucy in an apartment in Vienna. Mozart is a trained veterinarian and Lucy is an aspiring actress, both of whom have no permanent position. Mozart works as a freelancer for a collection agency and as part of an order he meets Meisel, who has not yet fully paid off his freezer. Mozart is unable to collect the money, but he saves Meisel's life when he falls from a bridge into the Danube.