When the much too skinny Gregorius Kern comes into the world in a former imperial shooting range, people do not believe he will last long in this world. A suspicious doctor helps him, for the time being, to prove them wrong. However, the hard-won success of being allowed to play on the stage of life comes at a heavy price. "Only when the old women in this provincial theater decide the direction things will take... then he shall become whatever he wants!" Thus demands the two-horned one from the spirit of life, after the helpful doctor disappears from the village scene. From that moment on, both fight not only for the right to Gregorius Kern but also for the course of history in a small village in West Saxony by the stream, and thus for the fate of a few contemporaries, of whom hardly anyone knows today.