The butcher Klumbach has recently moved to the city. The pub on the corner becomes his regular haunt. He has already settled in a little when a new regular appears. Brestenzki, a tout and would-be pimp, takes Klumbach for a spin and introduces him to an "acquaintance": Struck. Klumbach wants to get to know her. Struck and Klumbach spend a harmonious night together, which ends early in the morning in her bed. After a short sleep, Klumbach is served a special breakfast by Brestenzki.

During the time of the Peasants' Wars, the free knight Götz von Berlichingen gets into all kinds of private and political entanglements when he defends the Bishop of Bamberg. He is declared an enemy of the empire and ostracized as a robber. Insurgent peasants, of whom he becomes the leader, also betray him by attacking a town against the condition that no violence be used.