1960's Siegheilkirchen, a small town in the Austrian hinterland is steeped in reactionary and ultra-Catholic attitudes. The son of a hard-working innkeeper and his wife, called Snotty Boy by all and sundry, is at odds with the narrow-minded confines of his home town. But his unstoppable talent for drawing gives him an outlet for his discontent.

After a cunning escape from the boarding school, Oliver and Peter find their way to the back parts of Gastein Valley, where they fall into the hands of the paranoid Professor Niedlich. He gives the boys compulsory lessons, far worse than at school.