The time is around 1910, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. A male-dominated circle, characterised by the upper middle classes, upwardly mobile nouveau riche, officers, doctors and artists, spends the time between sensuality and the agonies of love playing tennis, visiting the theatre and going on mountain tours. The marriage of the Hofreiters is badly affected by the affairs of the husband Friedrich. But affairs are the order of the day in this society. So everyone keeps quiet and maintains appearances. It is only when Hofreiter’s wife Genia enters into an affair with the son of a good friend and Hofreiter discovers this that he forces a fatal confrontation with the adversary.