In the feudal days in Europe, Baron Ochs von Lerchenau, a prodigal and philogynous country noble, has squandered all his property, going bankrupt. He has accordingly decided to marry Sophie von Faninal, the only daughter of a wealthy and freshly peered Viennese bourgeois. He has broken free of his local love, Margarete, and has left for Vienna with a few followers, including Nikolaus, virtually in a manner of moonlight flitting.