Ivan Desny

A good-looking but naive lad leaves his mountain village to try and make his way in Paris. He thinks maybe he will try acting but things don't go too well for him. Eventually he is forced to sell himself to men and though he meets an attractive girl she is herself a prostitute with a vicious pimp.

In late 1920s Berlin, Franz Biberkopf is released from prison and vows to go straight. However, he soon finds himself embroiled in the city’s criminal underworld.

Lola Montes, previously a great adventuress, is reduced to being the attraction of a circus after having been the lover of various important men.