Thanks to his actions during a farm fire, the young and naive Dreas is appointed to the local fire department, which awakens various ambitions in him. He constructs primitive watchtowers everywhere and achieves some successes, partly due to the activities of an arsonist. He is then allowed to attend a course at the fire academy in Maastricht. Back in his village, he fails during a fire at the local bakery, where everything goes wrong. Dismissed from his position, he finds new employment as a market vendor with a fire extinguisher he invented.