Fabian Bom, auctionist in a small town, one day finds a baby boy in a small crib that is for sale at an auction. He places the boy at an orphanage but returns the next day since he realizes that he misses the boy. Since a single man is not permitted to adopt a baby he arranges a marriage with a young woman, who really is the baby's mother.
At a parish meeting Åsa-Nisse suggests that they should hire a common home help, who could give their wives some relief by staying one week at each household. The meeting assents and decides that the order of her rotation should be established by lot. The two bachelors of the village claim their right to the home help as well, arguing that they are also taxpayers. When Elsa Haglund arrives from Gothenburg she starts her first week of work at one of the two bachelors, the village shop-keeper Sjökvist. He is immediately infatuated by her and begins a flirtation. At the end of the week Elsa happens to meet the other bachelor, Eric Broo, called "the singing farmer". She falls in love with him, but doesn't know how to hook him, as he is very shy and unskilled in courting women. In the meantime Åsa-Nisse, the village rogue, carries out some of his pranks.
The farmers Zackris Månsson and the Kerstorps-farmer lives on each side of the river. The two villages has always been enemies. The Kerstorps-farmer dies after a beating caused by Zachris. The son Olle takes over the farm and becomes a good farmer. He has a reputation of a fancying women, but the only women he has eyes for is Zachris daughter.
City girl Emma marries the farmer Nicklas but gets involved in a love triangle with his brother Ragnar.