When she was a little girl, Liuba came to town with her widowed mother to live in the block of flats owned by her aunt Anna Iwanowna. The wealthy and cold-hearted Anna Iwanowna barely accepted them as tenants. And no sooner did Liuba's mother die than she wanted to send her niece to the orphanage. Fortunately, Pawlin, Anna Iwanowna's janitor, decided to adopt her and he brought her up with affection. When she grew up, the beautiful Liuba fell in love with her aunt's son, Dodja, a good-looking but profligate army officer. Wishing nothing more than an affair with Liuba, Dodja did not hesitate to play the comedy of love to her. When she realized what Dodja was really after, Liuba was devastated and in desperation accepted to marry Pawlin, her benefactor, who had been infatuated with her for years. Alas, in the middle of the wedding party Dodja danced with Liuba and eloped with her

On a pasture in Bavaria, an ox frightens members of the American occupying forces. Farmer Alois, the owner of the animal, is sentenced to thirty days in prison for this "political" offense. While Alois begins his sentence, the ox runs riot in the prison yard. No one can tame him, and all the farmers refuse to take the ox into their care. The helpless administration comes up with a crazy solution: Alois must split his person. As inmate Alois, he is assigned to field duty with the livestock owner Alois to supervise the ox, while as livestock owner Alois he has to supervise inmate Alois. The bill he is subsequently presented with for twice the work is enormous.

Consul daughter Anne Stülcken wants to take her fiancee undetected under the magnifying glass and therefore slips in her father's villa in the role of a maid.

After serving their sentence, three prisoners, a doctor, a civil servant and a thief, leave jail. During the train trip they do together to return home, they analyze their respective lives. The doctor has been required to perform an operation on a child abandoned by his father, a millionaire.

The story centers on Jonny, who is stranded in the fictional South American republic of Nebrador after being discovered as a stowaway en route to inherit a ranch elsewhere; due to his striking resemblance to Governor Oronta, he is coerced into impersonating the leader to shield him from assassination attempts amid a brewing revolution.