On the turn of the 20th century, in Netherlands, three socialist activists and brothers are imprisoned for a crime they didn't commit. The prosecutor tries to get to the truth, but their comrades and others betray them.

Alternating comedy and drama this portrait of different families on three floors in an Amsterdam building where the stairs symbolizes the suffering of known urban living alongside each other. Upstairs live two students, including the failed and unemployed singer Karin with Harrie and Wouter down with his demented mother.