A drama directed by Gustav Ehmck, a teenager lays a small bundle on the tracks, but before the oncoming train can cross it, an older woman saves the baby from certain death. She keeps little Sophie with her and raises her to be a well-behaved girl.

Tom Ripley, an American who deals in forged art, is slighted at an auction in Hamburg by picture framer Jonathan Zimmerman. When Ripley is asked by gangster Raoul Minot to kill a rival, he suggests Zimmerman, and the two, exploiting Zimmerman's terminal illness, coerce him into being a hitman.

The somewhat indolent father Traugott Wurster looks after his six sons while his wife works in a butcher's shop. One day, when Traugott falls into a mysterious prolonged sleep, mother Wurster is forced to give the children to relatives. Markus is sent to the stuffy Uncle Theodor, who turns into a childhood friend under his influence. Mother Wurster also "rents" the sleeping Traugott to a furniture store, which uses him to advertise mattresses in the shop window.

Theo is having some bad luck. His barely paid-for truck has been stolen, and credit collectors are after him. The chase leads him across Europe.