Three sisters live with their aunt, the mistress of Junkershus, and are very annoyed at their sanctimonious and tiresome cousin Jonas, who sometimes carouse down in the town, sometimes crawls the most repulsively before the rich old lady. The most beautiful of the sisters, Madelaine, writes to their favorite cousin Curt Junker, and asks him to come and reveal Jonas's hypocrisy, which their aunt in her credulity seems to be blind to.