Arnold (Jürgen Prochnow) has a job in a gardening business in Berlin and so has his girlfriend Monika. When Arnold is offered some extra work, without tax, on a Sunday, he agrees, because he can always use more money. Some colleagues question this behaviour, as it is against workers union agreements but Arnold thinks anyway, that unions and worker's solidarity is a lot of intellectual crap. To the great sorrow of his father, who is an old union-man. Arnold lives at home, probably because housing was very short in Berlin at that time. His sister also still lives at home with her husband Dieter and their little daughter. They are a picture-book young family with a very orderly life, who later move into their own flat. Quite in contrast to Arnold.
Arnold likes to hang out with a group of friends, who are like him mostly interested in cars, drinking and sex. Sex is provided by Monika, who sleeps with all of them. When Monika gets pregnant, she asks Arnold to marry her. He refuses and Monika's parents take him to court. Of course Arnold rounds up all his friends, who have slept with Monika and there is no way of saying, who the father is. During the trial, it also turns out, that Monika is even more stupid, than the boys she goes out with: when asked, why she is so sure, that Arnold is the father, she answers, that she got a package of The Pill from a street vendor and made sure, she always took one, before she had sex with another man! After that, the trial is ended and the social services are asked to look after Monika.
One of the friends gets Arnold a new job as delivery driver for the shop of his uncle. During this time Arnold gets acquainted with another girl, Barbara, who runs a little shop in a train station. To impress her, he dresses up, when he meets her and tells her that he is an "Unternehmer" (somebody who runs his own business). She quite likes Arnold, but refuses to sleep with him. So the next time Arnold sees Monika, he takes her to the cinema and some sex afterwards, in spite of being in the middle of a delivery-round. To hush things up, he pretends, that the car was stolen and broken into. Arnold gets sacked, as his boss suspects foul play and being a friend of his nephew saves him from being prosecuted.
The friends Arnold goes out with, in spite of these escapades all have learned, or are in the process of learning a profession. Only Arnold goes from odd-job to odd-job and now he has trouble finding new work. Dieter, his brother in law , is a construction worker on a big building site. He asks Arnold to come to the site, maybe they can find a job for him there. Arnold soon decides, that this is no work for him but has an idea: the building site is far away from anything, especially pubs!
There used to be allotments near the site and Arnold finds an old man, who is willing to sell his garden and the little house on it. Arnold wants to convert the house and start a pub. He wants Barbara as a partner in this and she can see the potential of the idea and agrees. As she is an experienced waitress, it is easier for her to get a concession to run a pub and the business is registered in her name. Both families help converting the house and everybody assumes, that Arnold and Barbara are going to marry eventually. They both live together with Barbara's parents. Arnold's father is very relieved, because he thinks, that Arnold has at last found his place in life. Soon quarrels start between Barbara and Arnold: she is a good business-woman, but he prefers to drink his own beer and sit with his old friends, who frequent the pub. He also asks Monika to help out with the serving, as he reckons, the customers like to pinch bottoms. Monika first refuses after all that happened, she tells Arnold, that she has given up the child for adoption, but then agrees nervertheless.
Barbara doesn't want children for the time being, as she wants to keep an eye on the business but she doesn't take the pill, because she has heard about side effects. So it is Arnold's job, to take care. Which he doesn't, of course. Barbara gets pregnant and so sick, that she has to stay home. Arnold and Monika run the pub, which gets more and more disreputable.
Dieter, the good husband of Arnold's sister, who has so far stayed away from the pub, promises his mates to invite them there on his birthday. He gets drunk and enjoys himself very much, even gets fresh with Monika. In this moment his wife comes in and runs out in horror immediately. One of Arnold's cronies follows her and to comfort her, invites her for a drink and seduces her. Meanwhile the drunk Dieter accepts a dare and has a bad accident. Arnold could have prevented this, but just walked away.
On the next day, Barbara accuses Arnold in front of his mates of ruining the reputation of the pub and of not pulling his weight. Arnold gets very macho and boasts, that women have to be put in their place if they get uppity. Barbara goes home, but she is no Monika! The business is in her name and she throws Arnold out of her parent's flat and the pub. She sacks Monika, gets an abortion and soon makes a decent little restaurant out of the pub.
Arnold is out of work again and finds a job at a fun-fair. There he meets one evening two of his fellow-workers from the nursery. They are students now and invite him to come along to a political demonstration next day. One of them says, that they are very glad to have met Arnold, as they were very keen on getting into contact with the proletariat. Arnold is very offended and goes after them, together with one of his cronies, who has come to meet him.
The evening ends with Arnold short-changing a tired old waiter, using a coin that is fixed to a finger-ring. The two young men go off, thinking that they are wonderful.