The teacher Wolfgang Auer and the policeman Hannes Wunderlich are friends and housemates. When seventeen-year-old Traudel (Eva-Maria Hagen), an orphan whose mother died in a concentration camp, walzes uninvited into their house and their lives, they take on the virtually impossible assignment of trying to care for her.
Traudel is as clever as she is naive, as deceitful as she is trusting. She causes the two men to become entangled in embarrassing and even illegal situations. At the same time, Hannes feels sorry for her once he learns of her traumatic past, and he hopes to be able to turn her around.
Of course, consequences must be faced for their illegal actions, but the pair eventually figures out how to do things legally and start a life together.