After attempting to set a mailbox on fire, Pimpette, 14, and her elder sister, Joséphine, spend their summer holidays shuttling between their secretly pregnant mom and bachelor father. But when Joséphine gets involved with the wrong crowd, little Pimpette turns out to be more responsible than the grown-ups who spend their time educating her.
Gray-haired furniture retailer Paul Winkelmann still has his dinner cooked and his laundry done by his mother. He spends his evenings playing Scrabble with Mama's friends and discussing the role of women in society in his carnival club. When he meets psychologist Margarete Tietze, Pussi finally begins to rebel against his dominant mother.
