While traveling as a journeyman, Paul encounters an old friend, the puppeteer's daughter Lisei. They fall in love and get married and Lisei and her father move back to Paul's home village. As a craftsperson, Paul enjoys a high status in the village, but the class-concious townspeople are not willing to accept his new wife and father-in-law.

Based on a novella for young people by Theodor Storm.