The stubborn old skipper Heinrich Borchert refuses to recognize the progress of the new era. Sailing for the DSU is out of the question for him. He is a private ship owner - and will remain so! In order to pay off the mortgage on his barge "Marie", he takes more cargo on board than is reasonable and risks a dangerous draught in the shallow waters of the Havel. Neither his friend Hermann Vollbeck, also an old bargeman but sailing for the DSU, nor the protests of his son Karl can dissuade him. After all, Borchert is only doing all this for Karl, who is supposed to take over the boat one day and have a better life. He, on the other hand, has other ideas about life. Instead of just being a slave to the ship or having to deal with debts, he wants to have time for more enjoyable things alongside his work.

After marrying Hofrat Geiger, Marianne moves to Vienna to be with her husband. She runs the household while her daughter attends the music academy. But Mariandl is heartbroken. She constantly catches her Peter in strange situations with other women. Marianne, on the other hand, constantly has to listen to the innuendo of Franzi, Geiger's long-time housekeeper, who would have loved to be a Hofrat herself. Frustrated, mother and daughter decide to leave Vienna and visit their grandfather. He has inherited a dilapidated farm in the Wachau region, where horses are kept, awaiting shipment to Italian slaughterhouses. Through two benefit concerts, the talented music student Mariandl is able to raise enough money to buy the horses' freedom.

1963 German comedy film directed by Helmuth M. Backhaus