Edith, an overweight opera-lover of a housewife, is thrust into a new life when her husband Helge dies after a lengthy illness. Edith had promised him that she would spend their savings to treat herself to something nice –but what she spends the money on is very different from the new sofa which she had initially planned to buy.Her daughter Sussi works at a wine bar in the city, and there Edith falls for Johnny, a young stud. Johnny becomes Edith’s gigolo until Sussi tells him that he has almost drained her mother’s bank account. There is a showdown in which Edith flattens Johnny, but while he is recuperating in the hospital it suddenly dawns on him that he loves Edith.But Edith has already taken another stride in her role as a free and independent widow: she has inveigled lb, the janitor, into a trip to the Bayreuth Festival to see Siegfried. On a whim, Edith interrupts her journey, gets off the train and meets her late husband in a grassy meadow before clambering aboard a train definitely not heading for Bayreuth. New experiences are on the way.