A film about the importance of art in times of crisis. The year 2020 will go down in history. But how can art help us in these hard times? That's the main question, Salzburg. Eine Kunstgeschichte. is trying to answer.

While Berlin-based businessman Paul Graf is in Shanghai, his nosy busybody mother Maria, who was only to mind his apartment, opens his mail, finds a letter notifying he's to become father and without consulting him travels to see the expectant mother, Nina, at her home, uncle Harald Brandl's farm and stork home. Maria falls in love with Harald but also finds the key to the Graf family's past, fled from Hungary during the Soviet-crushed rebellion. Paul arrives and finds Nina impossible to deal with, yet wants a bond with his unborn son.

The investigation of an escort girl found dead in a luxury hotel leads the detectives on a dangerous trail, flustering the local authorities of the wealthy town.