Walter Cornelis

A Flemish bourgeois family in 1920 is dominated by three wealthy aunts who constantly threaten to disinherit them. When their daughter Eggers falls in love with the gentleman farmer Flack, a bon vivant, the aunts want to quell this passion by any means necessary.

The film describes the first working day of a twelve-year-old girl, shortly after the turn of the century. After a miserable childhood in a proletarian family, where she was mother to five toddlers, the sensitive girl follows in the footsteps of her parents and seventeen-year-old sister and sets off for the brickworks. The girl bravely defends herself at work, enduring the boys' bullying without tears, but when the day comes to an end, the foreman tells her that she must go to Krevelt, the boss, to be registered.

Leontientje, the Parisian niece of an East Flemish farming family, comes to stay. Aunt Zeunia is dying and has asked for her. Her visit completely disrupts life on the farm. The men fight for her attention, and the city girl is delighted by every bit of nature: 'Comme c'est beau!'. Her Parisian manners—two kisses for everyone—drive the farmer's wife up the wall: "All that fuss!" But the youngest farmer starts dreaming...

Around 1860 in the Kempen region. Baas Gansendonck, the landlord of a village inn, feels far superior to the farmers and imagines himself to be of noble birth. His daughter Liza has always remained simple, but suddenly he finds her fiancé Karel, the brewer's son, beneath her. Gansendonck tries to marry his daughter to the baron, but after a fight to save Liza's honor, Karel ends up in prison. Meanwhile, Liza wastes away with grief.