A comedy loosely based on the life story of Johann Friedrich Böttger, the inventor of Meissen porcelain: In Berlin, the pharmacist Fritz Böttger gains a reputation for being able to make gold and is imprisoned on the orders of the Prussian king. Following in the footsteps of a young lady, he flees to Saxony, but is also imprisoned in Dresden and forced to make gold. Although he does not succeed in this, by chance he discovers how to make porcelain instead. Augustus the Strong appoints him baron and director of the royal porcelain manufactory.