Fries soup, Viennese juice goulash, Linzer torte: Maria Lieblich, Steffi Krieg and Carola Bleibtreu are on everyone's lips with their Austrian specialty restaurant "Lieblich an der Elbe" in Dresden's Elbschlösschen. But in spite of well-running business, the active trio of women, in their prime, is left with the enormous operating costs. Maria and her friends are only able to convince the bank director Schober with difficulty to top up their outstanding loan of 300,000 euros by a considerable sum before the appliances are dismantled in the kitchen. In an emergency, an apparently generous patron comes to their rescue: the gallant shipowner Hermann Augartner submits Maria a lucrative catering contract for his Elbe fleet. This could - once successfully mastered - expand into a permanent commitment, which would solve all financial problems for the three restaurateurs