The story is about Poenie (Franscois Coertze) who burns his scrotum with a welding iron while working on his car and lands in hospital a few days before he is to marry the virgin Martie. This is the first mishap in a series of disasters and misunderstandings that provides many belly-clutching laughs. As Poenie's father Frikadel (Zak du Plessis) puts it, "Die seun sit sy voet uit die voordeur uit en dan is hy kniediep in die kak!"

In 1747, a handsome but rebellious Scotsman named Richard Abdee is auctioned off as a slave on a Caribbean island controlled by French and British sugar-planters. When caught having sex with his owner's wife, Abdee is given 100 lashes with the dreaded "dragonard" whip. This sentence is meant to be fatal but Abdee survives and later joins in a slave revolt which puts an end to the island's era of savage whippings.