Joseph Völz, a punctual, rule-bound tax officer from Cologne’s Bergisches Land, expects life to run like his orderly forms, until his daughter Grete, back from Scotland, rejects his small-town ways for big-city Berlin. Unable to reach her in Cologne, Völz and his friend Schickedanz follow her to the capital. There, Joseph is charmed by a hotel clerk and briefly considers remarriage, while Schickedanz’s own advances also fail. Ultimately, Grete returns home, teaching Joseph that his rigid world only seems turbulent to himself.