Sailor Freddy entertains the guests at "Uncle Max's" with songs on the guitar. This earns him more than just a few tips. The waitress Susi falls in love with the honest guy with the strong voice. Journalist Katja, who is strolling through St. Pauli with her fiancé, also notices the singing sailor. They don't know that Freddy is wanted by the police and that his longing for faraway places won't let him go.

Exciting things happen on Captain Brass' small cargo ship on the last day in port: a windy "doctor" turns the captain on to a strange new ship's pharmacy, in which the medicines are replenished free of charge by his staff in every port of call. The "curbside swallow" Olga has long known that this is really about cocaine smuggling...

Hamburg, shortly after the Second World War. On the Reeperbahn, a former overseas captain, who keeps his head above water as a stoker, meets a desperate and lonely woman whose marriage has been destroyed by the war. Without knowing much about each other, the two seek brief happiness and oblivion in a night of love, are separated by a raid and find each other again - this time for good.