Paula Semmelrogge's little store is under threat. But a blow with a frying pan turns the old, withered and stingy retired lawyer and landlord Riemer into the youthful lover he has always suppressed within himself. Compulsions now fall off him like chains, and he finally gives in to the urge to get into bed with his tenant Paula and abandons the plan to sell the house. Much to the chagrin of real estate agent Suhr, whom he thus deprives of his business.