The adventures of smart soldier Gustav Diestelbeck include managing his superior officer, competing for the canteneer's daughter, evading punishment for discipline faults and hosting Prinz Willibald during his visit to the regiment.

Because the soulful county doctor in a small spa town in the mountains has interfered with the business of selling "healing waters", he incurs the enmity of the local shopkeepers. And for that reason, his candidacy for the post of District Medical Officer is thwarted.

"The Stranger" is Mrs. Clarkson, the wife of a wealthy American. Mrs. Clarkson has entered into matrimony for the express purpose of accumulating a great deal of money. No, she isn't a spendthrift: She hopes to use the cash to finance a campaign of revenge, levelled against the man who ruined her mother.

The mustached ruler of a mythical principality, learning that his people dislike his spending so much time going hunting, allows his twin brother to take his place.

A senator from Hamburg, frozen in old-fashioned gentility, attempts to consolidate his cigarette factory by marrying off his daughter to the son of his competition. His eccentric, nosy old sister, with no life of her own back in southern Germany, sends him a lawyer to keep an eye on the going-ons in the house.