A German-born director of an American television station travels through Bavaria with a folk music impresario to do research for a show to be broadcast directly to the United States. He comes into contact with all kinds of people and all kinds of different expressions of Bavarian folk music.

For 350 years, the Pfandlbräu brewery in Greimeling thrived, but production has fallen from 20,000 to 8,000 hectoliters annually. Michel Pfandl, a music-loving bachelor ill-suited to business, faces bankruptcy pressure from the house bank. They demand he marry widowed brewer Sophie to merge their fortunes. When he refuses, the bank initiates insolvency proceedings, forcing Michel to confront the brewery’s future and his own values.