Josef Rainer is a road worker in a mountain village in Liechtenstein. His wife Marianne works as a waitress in a restaurant to improve the meager housekeeping money. Some people ask themselves why she has married that poor devil since she could have married into money. But she stays to the keen wood carver. He works out fantastic objects of tree roots, but villagers jeer at him. The family dreams to get a cow of their own to be more independent. One day Josef scrapes together all savings and goes to the cattle market. Due to lack of money, a clever farmer palms a skinny, sick cow off on him. The children Hansli and his friend Ludmila take the cow to their heart. Ludmila even lends her name to the animal. Some time later Josef falls from a mountain and is unable to work for a long time. So a decision is made that cow Ludmila which produces no milk has to be slaughtered.