A Swiss-German rural peasant family takes Max, a crude 15-year-old boy, into a foster situation of constant bullying. Soon, a foster girl is added to the mix.

The illegitimate orphan child, 12-year-old Max, is sold by the local minister for a basket of food to the Bösiger family, who own a mountain farm. Max' initial hope of finally finding a loving home is brutally shattered: The farmer and his wife treat Max like livestock, and their son Jacob humiliates and abuses him. Only the local teacher notices the child suffering on the farm.—OJT

After the harsh regime in grim a rural Swiss-German protestant orphanage, obedient bastard Max (14?) hopes for a better fate when placed by the greedy minister in a foster home with the Bösiger couple. But the petty farmer takes out his frustration that constant toil never won him a decent living on everyone, and defenseless Max also becomes the punching bag for the the wife and their adult son, Jakob, who turned down a military career for the farm, yet is still treated as 'lazy idiot' rather then virtuous heir. The naive new school teacher Esther's attempts to improve bright Max's fate and encourage his accordion playing backfire, even worse after the Bösiger take in a female foster kid, Berteli. Her slighter milder fate embitters overburdened Max further, yet he alone stands up for her when Jacob becomes sexually abusive.—KGF Vissers