Two young Viennese shopgirls, Lotta Schmidt and Marie Weber, on their way home from their work stopped at the Volksgarten to hear an elderly violinist, one of Lotta’s admirers, conduct the orchestra. A younger suitor joined them and made cruel comments on the artist’s appearance, his musicianship and his advanced age. Lotta resented it keenly, and that night, at a ball at which the younger lover danced too often with her rival, Lotta accepted Herr Crippel.