Major Palfrey is off to war. He warns his two daughters, Dinah and Dorinda, that while he is away they must behave themselves: "When there is wind on the moon, you must be very careful how you behave. Because if it is an ill wind and you behave badly, it will blow straight into your heart, and then you will behave badly for a long time to come." And so it proves: before long the girls are drinking a potion provided by the local witch and turning into kangaroos, getting stuck in the zoo, and staging an escape along with their new friends, a golden puma and a silver falcon.

The neurotic director Max Karlsson tries to do a film of Goethe's "Die Leiden des jungen Werthers". He finds all actors for his melodrama - except Lotte, the wonderful girl who is an object of two mens love. He auditions a number of girls. But when he finds the right one nothing goes the way he had figured.