In 1825, a stranger has withdrawn to the small southern German city of Grünwiesel to lead a quiet life, but he despises the inhabitants narrow-mindedness gossiping. One day a circus comes to town, and shortly afterwards, the stranger presents his “nephew” to the citizens, whose foreign-seeming appearance and customs lead them to believe he is an Englishman.

The bourgeois inhabitants idolize this "man of the world," model their behavior after his, and even present their marriagable daughters to him. Finally, the stranger ends his revenge-driven joke by revealing to the crowd who they are emulating: a well-dressed monkey.

This musical pantomime is based on Wilhelm Hauff’s fairytale but is furnished with modern elements.