Hans Engler, a modest, reserved man, lives in Hamburg. He has never married and has no family of his own, but lives with a couple as a subtenant in simple accommodation. On Hamburg's Reeperbahn, of all places, Engler earns his living as a waiter in a shabby "establishment", in the middle of an environment in which the peaceful Engler doesn't really fit in. He usually avoids arguments; Engler knows that nobody would take him seriously as an opponent in the rough neighborhood because of his slight build.