One day, Tim (Roy Ward) stops to speak with one of those men with no apparent income and no apparent place of residence who can be seen on the streets of Amsterdam and who are ready to speak of profundities and mock-profundities at the drop of a hat. This particular man tells him that "people don't die, they get killed." For some reason, this strikes the lonely television repairman as profound. He has been building a ham radio at home out of spare parts so that he will have someone to talk to. Shortly after talking to the street person, his circle of friends is diminished by one when his friend Alex is reported to have killed himself. This in itself is a bit of a mystery, and Tim attempts to make sense of it by talking to a lawyer, Alex's girlfriend, and others.

The romantic pharmacist Max is in a relationship with Willie and also has a platonic relationship with Laura. The artist Henk is the fourth player in this game of quartets. The foursome is comically torn between the urge for independence and the desire for a partner. Jealousy and relationship anxiety cause the relationships to constantly change, resulting in continuous relocations. In between, there is the minor drama involving Bonita: Max has a passion for pigeons. Together with the melancholic pigeon fancier Gisbers, he is the owner of the cock pigeon Bonita, who never wins any prizes...

A rich Frisian farmer has been murdered in Amsterdam and police duo Grijpstra & De Gier are sent to investigate. Adjutant Grijpstra has problems at home again and is happy to leave for Friesland to investigate the murder. Sgt. De Gier finds the Frisian Hylke much more interesting than the murder case. In Leeuwarden there is a real Chinese war and a brutal robbery at the cattle market. Suddenly there is that friendly rattling, asthmatic rat who provides an unexpected solution.

A satire about the difficult way films are made in the Netherlands. The focus is on the painstaking way in which aspiring filmmakers, have to see the script in hand, grants and funds available.