On the eve of the Peasants’ Revolt, Till Eulenspiegel—the legendary fool and provocateur of old folktales—goes tearing through the countryside laying bare society’s grievances.

Even the military academy can't stop kind-hearted officer Gottfried Engelhardt from seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. Everything in the young GDR is blooming: Engelhardt's career, the socialist state, the black market, and maybe even a chance at love.

With massive amounts of luggage, a man hurries up onto the railway platform. Once he arrives, the announcements on the loudspeaker send him from one platform to another. Resigned and exhausted, he takes a seat on a bench, feeds the pigeons, and eventually flies off with them.

In the Dutch town of Saardam, Tsar Peter the Great has disguised himself in order to learn the art of ship-building. Another Russian named Peter also works at the wharf, causing a comical case of mistaken identities.

On her deathbed, a wealthy woman reveals that she – in order to keep her possessions from being given to a collective – has hidden her jewels in one of twelve identical chairs, newly confiscated by revolutionary authorities.

Kamminke and Frank, both computer science students, have developed a program that enables a computer to automatically find and correct errors in its software. In spite of their technological prowess, the two men run into trouble because they simply will not adapt to accepted social patterns.