"Kidnapper wanted – minimum age 45. Beauty not required!" – so reads the less-than-flattering text of an advertisement on which brothers Achim, Gerd, and Rolf Terbrügge are pinning all their hopes. The three bachelors have a nephew named Till whom they need to look after. It wasn't that the five-year-old had scared off all the previous girls who had looked after him – the problem lay more in the nature of the three brothers themselves! As soon as one of the young women arrived, she was usually very pretty and immediately sparked rivalry among the unmarried men. This couldn't end well. But now they've found a suitable candidate: her name is Luise Mehlhorn, and she certainly doesn't fit the conventional definition of beauty. The Terbrügges immediately accept her offer. But then there's a problem: Luise is in bed with mumps and a high fever and can't start the position right away.