The Plot

In the Vienna of the Biedermeier era, the young Carl makes a delicate wager with two officers: If he does not succeed in presenting a new romantic adventure by the next day, he has to treat the soldiers to ten bottles of sparkling wine. Albeit he tries in vain to seduce the pretty maid Franzi, Carl brags about his alleged conquest the next day in his favourite pub. When the senior lieutenant Stephan, who is head over heels in love with Franzi, hears about Carl’s putative success, he writes, out of his lovelornness, a catchy song about the carefree maids of Vienna. The song becomes the talk of the town — but the Viennese maids are so disgruntled about the earworm that they go on strike in protest at the grand Radetzky ball…