The young Ernst Leuchtenthal is planning to travel to the USA for a year to study. Before he leaves, his father asks him for a meeting. Consul Leuchtenthal wants to get his son a "good" marriage before he disappears overseas. The old man has the very young, attractive Christine von Auffenberg in mind, who runs a breeding farm for chinchillas. This would fit in well with the consul's business, as he earns good money as a fur trader. Ernst is not too keen on marrying a woman his father has chosen for him, especially as he does not love Christine. In the local children's home he meets the light-blonde Marianne, and for him it is like love at first sight.

Old Meiseken, a gingerbread baker, has been dead for three years, but his bosses don’t know that. They’ve been paying him his pension all this time, unaware that his former landlords have been cashing the checks. When, one day, the assistant head of the bakery, Tony, pays a visit to Meiseken’s place to get a hold of an old recipe, someone’s got to play the part of Meiseken! The fraud blows up in the landlords’ faces; but in the end, Tony gets the recipe book and even a new bride.

Father Brown is only too happy to interfere with the work of the police in solving tricky criminal cases, usually with resounding success. That's why the clergyman is transferred to a sleepy island called Abbott's Rock. At first, nothing happens there, but somehow Father Brown seems to be attracted to crime: Soon a gang of thieves is up to no good on the island. So Brown makes the headlines again, and is punitively transferred once more. This time he finds himself in a quiet Irish millionaire community.