Dr. Gabriel Eisenstein, Syndikus bei Arabayam & Co., must take up an eight-day sentence for insulting an official in the Grinzing County Prison. At the same time, however, he is to visit the ball of Prince Orlofsky for his employer Basil Arabayam as Marquis Renard with a feigned wife. Said woman is to persuade the prince to give her oil-rich lands in Bakutin on the Black Sea, which are to be passed on immediately to Arabayam.