Franz (Simon Morzé) is a 17-year-old who travels to Vienna in order to be an apprentice at a tobacco shop. Once there, he meets one of the shop's regulars–the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (Bruno Ganz). The two men then form an unlikely friendship. When Franz falls in love with a dancer named Anezka (Emma Drogunova), he turns to Sigmund for advice. When Nazis arrive in Austria, he, Sigmund, and Anezka are thrust into a whirlwind of events, forcing them to make a decision between fleeing or staying. The movie, which is based on a novel by Robert Seethaler, is directed by Nikolaus Leytner.