Kurt Hoffmann's remake of his own 1953 movie based on the play by Curt Goetz.

The 13-year-old Ludwig is to have for every joke. At boarding school he cuts his stern teacher, Captain a. D. Semmelmaier, during the nap from the beard. The angry pedagogue then sends the spoiled flail back to his beloved Bavarian village. The long-suffering mother persuades the rector to resume her reforming boy at the Latin school. Everything seems to be working out for the better, but the upcoming marriage of his sister Ännchen with the Berlin beer brewer Karl Schultheiss presents Ludwig with new challenges.

Despised by her husband and son after an affair, Marianne moves in with her lover, an unsuccessful painter, until she is purified.

In 1920, an unknown 24-year-old woman was fished out of Berlin's Landwehr kanal after a suicide attempt. Since she has no papers and no answers to any questions, they soon assign them to the insane asylum Dallendorf. A co-patient believes she recognizes the Czar's daughter Anastasia Romanowa - who apparently was the only one who survived the murder of the tsar's family in 1918.

Hamburg, Germany 1934: An executioner is needed. Teetjen makes the biggest mistake of his life. Because his butcher shop is facing bankruptcy, he agrees to execute a group of political prisoners for the Nazis. Once this becomes known, Teetjen’s life falls apart.