In the year 1929 the young American writer Clifford Bradshaw arrives in Berlin, searching for material for his novel. He rents a cheap room in Fräulein Schneider’s boarding house and spends New Year’s Eve in the Kit Kat Club, upon Ernst-Ludwig’s invitation, an acquaintance he made during his journey.

The Kit Kat Club is one of the many temples to pleasure that Berlin had to offer in the 1920s. A place for longings of every kind, where you could live for a moment in the utopia of erotic and political freedom. In the darkness, the faded filament bulbs of the Cabaret turn into a glamorous lustre, which sucks in the restless night wanderers of the metropolis in its glaring red gullet.

Here, a louche MC introduces the attraction of the evening: Fräulein Sally Bowles, an English night club singer. Sally and Cliff quickly get to know one another in the permissive, relaxed atmosphere of the club. She is looking for a place to stay, he is looking for an aim in life and already on the following day she moves in with him – disregarding his views on the matter.

The friendly fruit merchant Herr Shultz also lives in Fräulein Schneider’s boarding house and spoils his landlady with exotic fruit. Just as their tender love story leads to an engagement, Herr Schultz, a Jew, is for the first time confronted with the hatred of the emerging Nazi movement: resigned and afraid, Fräulein Schneider makes a difficult decision regarding their forthcoming wedding ...

Cliff is appalled at the burgeoning Fascism and wants to leave Berlin as soon as possible, with the now pregnant Sally. But, just like the shrill, cynical MC, Sally is uninterested in politics – for her, life is only a Cabaret.

One is travelling through, in flight, in constant fear, and so in the end each packs his bags. Sally gives away her fur coat to pay for an abortion, and returns to the Kit Kat Club. And Cliff, shortly before the Nazis come to power, leaves Berlin. No one as yet knows where the journey will lead to ...