Vienna in the late Middle Ages. Snipes, whores, and pretty women all wear it as a badge of recognition: the yellow shoulder cloth. But Johanna Maipelt, a middle-aged free woman of Vienna, has had enough of men and wants to spend her twilight years in the convent of penitent women at St. Jerome. She is quite astonished when the city guards bring her a frightened girl and claim she is a prostitute. However, Hannerl knows better and tries to uncover the secret in her grumpy way.