The first prize is won by Dr. Fritz Hagedorn, an unemployed copywriter, who lives with his widowed mother and scrapes by on occasional work.

She shares her unease with their longtime housekeeper, frau Kunkel, and they decide that Hilde should warn the management of the hotel of her father's plan.

The hotel's management therefore considers the unemployed and destitute copywriter Dr. Hagedorn, the first prize winner, as the wealthy man living in disguise and decide to treat him lavishly.

Schlüter, who looks and acts poor, must sleep in a small attic room, without heating, harassed by the staff and even compelled to do odd jobs.

Yet, after a few additional days Tobler becomes so disgusted with the daily harassment by the hotel that he cannot take it anymore and rapidly returns to Berlin with his daughter, his butler, and the housekeeper.

The story is about male bonding and the comedy of errors cutting across socio-economic lines in the aftermath of the Great Depression, and the rise of the Nazism, in Germany.