Engineer Franz Bach seems to have gone astray once again. Working overtime, nagging at his wife and his parents sleeping apart lead the children to come to this conclusion. It can't go on like this. His youngest son Täve does his best to keep his father away from the very young intern Irene. Täve's 19-year-old brother, on the other hand, tries to steal his father's mistress. His wife Margarete also wants to bring a breath of fresh air into the marriage.
Horst, a young boy from Berlin, spends his holidays with the "Pirates" at Horse Island. The teen gang is led by Horst′s friend Benno. Soon, Horst realizes that the pirates create a lot of nuisance. Gudrun, whom Horst meets on his way to the village, tells him that she has been attacked and injured by the pirates when she tried to observe a rare cormorant. Gudrun and Horst become friends. Since Benno is less than thrilled about this friendship, he plots a second attack on the girl.
Irene and Klaus Bach are happily married. But living closely together with Klaus' parents causes a few problems. Added to this is jealousy of his wife's professional success. She leaves Klaus and the child. With strong support from Täve and Atze, the family tries to bring the "little starlet" back home and reconcile the young couple.
The young medical student Klaus Bach has married the love of his life, Irene, and lives with her and their eternally screaming offspring in a small one-room apartment in his parents' house. So things are tight and everyone's nerves are on edge. What's more, the parents' well-intentioned advice is seriously disrupting the young couple's marital bliss.