The quiet life of an extended family is shaken up when a circus comes into town.

The 13-year-old Ludwig is to have for every joke. At boarding school he cuts his stern teacher, Captain a. D. Semmelmaier, during the nap from the beard. The angry pedagogue then sends the spoiled flail back to his beloved Bavarian village. The long-suffering mother persuades the rector to resume her reforming boy at the Latin school. Everything seems to be working out for the better, but the upcoming marriage of his sister Ännchen with the Berlin beer brewer Karl Schultheiss presents Ludwig with new challenges.

Grethe Koblanck and her husband own a successful fur fashion house in Munich. She suspects him of flirting with younger women, including the South American Dolores. She employs a hidden camera to keep an eye on him. Upon discovering this, he gets a doppelganger to take his place. Things go wrong when it turns out his double also has an interest in attractive women.

Pepe Nietnagel and his fellow students of the Mommsen school come up with all kinds of ideas to get out of doing any actual school work. This includes simulating suicides, setting off the air-raid sirens and abusing the school director's new broadcasting system. They succeed in sending their teacher to a sanatorium and get a replacement that turns out to not be so bad after all.

Postwar Germany, May 1945. American city commander Tom Keller appoints engineer Walter Reinhardt as acting mayor of a small town in southern Germany. At the same time, he helps student Maria put on a musical show and, as an avid jazz fan, joins the tour as a conductor during his vacation.

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.