In the Sørensen family, it's the wife who makes the decisions. Including the person who will marry her daughter. Columbine loves the mysterious foreigner, Harlequin, born out of witchcraft and a wizard's cauldron, but she is promised to an unsympathetic suitor.

A trip to Dyrehavsbakken, the old amusement park in Dyrehaven (the Deer Park), should be the perfect prelude to the engagement on which Mrs Sørensen is determined, but Harlequin follows along in the shadows.

And with help from a good fairy, the young lovers finally succeed in getting together. Before that, a bottle of wine filled with fireworks, a couple of long magic noses, a dancing horse, three drunks and a collapsing tram ensure that the Sørensens and their servant, Pierrot, have plenty to keep them busy.

And things will be just as lively when the family eventually arrives at Dyrehavsbakken, with singing girls, gypsies, a strongman, drunks, puppet theatre and games of skittles. And Pierrot gets something of a surprise, when he suddenly sees someone else whose face is as white as his own. It's a rare sight when two Pierrots meet.