Adalbert, a paranoid, overprotective single dad imposes a set of 20 rules on his daughter Sylvie before she leaves the small town of Ormont-Dessus for university. Making sure that she obeys them perfectly, he secretly follows her to Basel, but ends up falling in with a party crowd and breaking all the rules himself.

Nick Sander tries to cover up the impending bankruptcy of his advertising company from his bride Lilli Brenner. Nick assumes that his money problems will be solved once he marries the banker's daughter. At the same time, Oskar, his 13-year-old son, of whose existence Nick was previously unaware, is on his way from Salzburg to Zurich. When the boy turns up on Nick's doorstep, things get dicey. The groom has no use for an illegitimate child from a dark past. Nick answers Lilli's curious question about who the boy is with a white lie: a Mozart actor for his latest advertising campaign. This slander goes down badly with Oskar, which is why he puts his father under pressure.