Simon Simpson runs an entertainment agency in Liverpool. At one of his regular auditions in The Bootle Railway Club he sees an aggressive young man fresh from the dole queue who dreams of becoming a professional comedian.
A conservationst, stranded with his family at a Newfoundland coastal resort, flies in the face of custom and fights an entire community to prevent a trapped whale's slaughter with only the support of his wife and one of the locals.
Franz Bielek is a bailiff by conviction. However, his overzealousness is increasingly a thorn in the side of his superiors, so they transfer him from the provinces to Munich without further ado.