Up to now quick-witted Vicky's life has been bound up with old things in plentiful supply as  she runs the pawnbroker shop in Berlin Kreuzberg. But this specialist for the remnants of life is suddenly confronted with something very young and incredibly full of energy - a cheeky young rascal, made in USA. This is Nicky, who has lost both parents in a car accident and is now taken in by his grandmother, Vicky. This leads to problems - and excitement. Vicky rustles up a few scraps of broken English and dolls herself up as a real Western lady, in an attempt to provide little Nicky with a replacement for his New York home. But her performances of American clichés are greeted with astonishment and mirth. Nicky has other things to deal with; a rigidly bureaucratic and officious case worker at the Youth Welfare Office, and the need to get on with the Turkish kids in the back yards of Kreuzberg, as well as to make new friends. One of their neighbours appears to be fond of children, then turns out to be a crook who wants to use the kids in his dealings with drugs, but he has failed to reckon with the shrewdness of the American boy, brought up on detective series.