It is the true story of a German pioneer aviator, Albrecht Berblinger, in the late 18th century.

The story jumps two years forward and moves to Ulm where Albrecht works as a tailor.

He and his new wife, appropriately plain for his station in life, are visited by the dashing Herr Degen, now married to the beautiful Irma whom Albrecht clearly likes.

Their visit is brief as he is en route to the Champs de Mars in Paris to demonstrate his flying machine, which is pulled behind his coach on a specially designed cart.

Albrecht is in a tavern one evening when a man, Kaspar Fesslen, is thrown out for causing a disturbance by leafleting in the room.

The local authorities ask him not to show the machine publicly, preferring to stage a display for the King of Wurrtemberg.

On the day though, in front of the king and a huge crowd, he is having to launch his flight not from the top of a hill as in all his previous attempts, but from a comparatively low platform on the town wall, and the wind is wrong.

He is found by soldiers and placed unconscious in a covered cart full of gilded but broken furniture.