Paul Paulsen, an old weaving mill owner, remembers his youth. As a child, he loved seeing a puppeteer performing in town. He was especially taken with Lisei, the puppeteer's daughter. Years later he meets her again in a small Swabian town. He helps her father, who is wrongly suspected of theft. Paul marries Lisei and takes her and her father with him to take over his father's workshop in his home country.