Isidoor lives with his niece and a housekeeper in a little provincial town. One day he receives a letter: he is to be the heir of a distant and wealthy relative. There is only one condition: he has to go and live for a year in "Home lux et vita", otherwise he will loose his inheritance. The home is a home for abandoned children and now this bachelor becomes the father to 40 children...
Mr Van Peborgh, an "artiste photographe", remained alone with his three sons Henri, Frans and Louis after the death of his wife.The household is done by the maid Beth while the graceful girl Marie helps him in the store.The eldest son Henri is engaged to Hortense and thinks he's getting married soon.Louis wants to leave for America. The big engagement party on which the whole family is present starts without worry but ends up in a disaster because "It's cruel in the world".
Liliane Springer, the daughter of Antwerpen office manager, has fallen in love with a football player, Raymond Smet. The trouble is that he is the star player of the Green team whereas her father is dedicated supporter of the White football team. Will love be stronger than sectarianism?
Frits and Jef are mates on a ship and have been friends for long. Frits, who is the steward, is also engaged to Jef's sister Marieke. When the two men disembark in Antwerp, their birth town, Frits realizes to his shock that a drug runner has hidden his contraband in his baggage. He informs the police at once and starts his own investigation...
A local brass band rehearses for a music competition in Bruges. They are confident that a new march by a young music teacher will get them the first prize. Their chance of winning seems to get an awful lot smaller when a a fight breaks out between the chairman and the music teacher -- urging the latter to sell the march to another band.
The first movie version, from the age of black & white, of Flemish (heimat-)author Ernest Claes' classical novel, titled after the nickname (Dutch 'the White', referring to a blond male) of the main character: a smart but naughty farmhand's son whose eternal mischief, pranks and disobedience drive his elders (especially teachers, family and father's grumpy employer, a rich farmer) and classmates to despair in a time when a boy's punishment was still inevitable, swift and often severe.