[4] The film explores issues of class prejudices, domestic violence, infidelity, family discord, depression and self-destructive behavior.

Hans Epp, an ordinary but likable man, returns home after spending several years in the French Foreign Legion.

Hans works as a fruit peddler, calling out his products and diligently making his rounds through the residential streets.

When the suspicious Irmgard questions why it took so long, he escapes her incessant complaints by abandoning his cart and going to a nearby bar.

Soon, the sad ritual of his empty existence emerges: arguing with his wife, drinking excessively, lamenting lost personal and professional opportunities.

In a flashback, he recalls how one day he brought a prostitute to the police station to take a statement, but she lured him into having oral sex.

When Hans once dreamed of being a mechanic, his mother demanded that he keep on studying and forbid him from taking a job that would get his hands dirty.

When Hans arrives, he tries to reconcile with his wife, but Irmgard retreats to a corner of the living room screaming in terror while the brother-in-law stands in front of her.

Once he is back home and as they are about to have sex, Irmgard explains that sometimes she finds him funny because he is much shorter than she is and that she only grew interested in him in the first place because he was so comical.

In his youth, he courted her with an armful of red roses, but she turned him down because her parents did not want her to marry a fruit peddler.

At a grand dinner with his wife, Harry and his buddies, Hans downs a few dozen shots of liquor, which promptly kill him on the spot.

The Merchant of Four Seasons was a turning point in Fassbinder's career, marking his entry into the international film arena.