He who loves, torments himself: This turn of phrase works for the big farmer Gerd Tapken and his landlady Katrin Geerken. For more than 30 years, the two have fought at every opportunity, although they secretly love one another. But things seem to have come to a serious breach when Tapken shoots Katrin’s cat, because it allegedly ate three of his hens. The woman is so enraged over this brutality, that she contacts her lawyer. Thus begins a court case, in which the farmer might be fined or even go to jail!