After serving in the Royal Navy, Manus, Toon and Dries return to Amsterdam working-class quarter 'the Jordaan'. Back home, they find out things have changed while they were gone; Manus's girl Jans has been unfaithful to him, Toon's father now rejects him on account of his dissolute life and barmaid Auntie Piet has been cooking up a scheme to ruin Dries' relationship with his girl Greet.

Peter Gruber, a young tenor from Vienna, gives piano lessons to Daisy, the daughter of a dentist. They fall in love and when Gruber has to perform in Antwerp, Daisy follows him there. She pretends to be an American musician and manages to get a job with Gruber's orchestra. Daisy's worried father sets off in pursuit of his daughter, accompanied by a certain miss Lola.

Dirk van der Kooy returns to the Dutch East Indies for a five year stint as the administrator of a sugar factory. His second wife Betje, however, unexpectedly decides to join him. Once there, she finds out that Dirk has a daughter from an earlier marriage, leading to misunderstandings galore...

When his colleague presents him with (forged) evidence of his wife Sylvette's unfaithfulness, factory owner Jean Sourdier kills him in a fit of rage. After fifteen years in prison he is determined to take revenge on his wife by killing Ninette, a daughter from her second marriage.