A literary whim from his youth on the part of the high school director Gollwitz has unexpectedly haunted him to the present day. After the incessant urging of his housemaid, he finally agrees that the enterprising theater director Emanuel Striese Gollwitz's interpretation of "The Rape of the Sabine Women" will be brought to the stage. The staging of the classic drama becomes a total flop and Striese suddenly has to fight to survive his theater and save his honor.