The film is based on the popular Dutch childrens book by Chris van Abkoude. In a Dutch port in 1921 lives a 10-year-old orphan boy known to everyone simply as Little Crumb. His poverty-stricken mother Lize van Dien filled with shame was forced to turn him over to Mrs. Koster soon after he was born. Foster mother Mrs. Koster, who has cared for him since he was a baby, is very poor too, unable to support him by herself and proves to be a cruel taskmaster who insists Crumb bring her money before shell feed him. Somehow he must earn his keep out on the streets and can only go home after he has earned enough money. Crumb becomes an urchin stealing from the streets barrows and the shops to stay alive, sleeping in churches or huddled in doorways. Sometimes he has to run off from the police and he has earned the enmity of the most grownups around him.

Ernst, a man in his thirties has lost his memory after an accident. His parents see this situation as another chance to raise Ernst into a perfect son, and enlist the help of a psychiatrist, a priest and an ideal daughter-in-law to be.

Hector's parents sent him to an orphanage in treatment for smallpox but... they never picked him up. 35 years later, he still lives in the orphanage, surrounded by children, his playmates. Till a forgotten aunt remembers that he exists. She'll get him to participate in the bakery of her husband, Achilles, to work. Hector shows his skills on the basis of unexpected inventions. So he helps Jos, the son of Achilles, to accomplish his dream to be a cycling champion. Hector's good humor and childlike manner overcomes all resistance and pulls his entire entourage along on the path to success. From now on he can learn what love is...

Hans falls in love with Brenda, an Indonesian girl. Hans' father sells an old building to Brenda's father, so that he can open an Indonesian restaurant there. Hans' father is the owner of a snackbar himself. The restaurant becomes very succesful, but some racists can't handle that, so they set the snackbar on fire...

Four illegal Brazilian musicians come to try their luck in dynamic Amsterdam... It will be a survival of the fittest.