In the 1880s, Hauptmann Bluntschli (O.W. Fischer) fights for Serbia in their war with Bulgaria, but when he decides that he's had enough of the battle, he goes AWOL. In an attempt to escape, he unwittingly finds himself trapped in the bedroom of Raina Petkoff (Liselotte Pulver), the fiancée of Bulgarian war hero Sergius Slivitzna (Jan Hendriks), but as Bluntschli and Raina talk, their initial squabbling subsides as they find they have an affinity for each other.