The film tells the story of some young people who grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Zurich in the late 1950s. The "Chrampfä, Verzichtä and Schparä" of their educators is not in tune with them. Much more enticing, they capture what's happening in the reopened jazz cellar. Down there, they find what is banned above: spontaneous lust for life. Especially Renato is electrified by jazz. He is more interested in the way the trumpeter Edgar sees life than his friends. Renato's friend Schampi, on the other hand, remains true to his half-dreary activities. He dreams of the big coup and of going to Marseille. And then there are the girls ...