Bet zit in de penarie

Summary

Part I: Bet owns a café in Amsterdam. Although she is keeping company with the seaman Gerrit, she flirts with her friend Pitouto, a waiter in a neighbouring restaurant, but is jealous when a girl sits on Gerrit's lap. Netje, Gerrit's mother, complains about the wild life her son is leading and about his mistreating her when he is drunk. Bet invites Netje and her young daughter Rikie to come and live with her. At Bet's insistence, Gerrit promises to mend his ways. Before he joins a ship leaving for England, Gerrit becomes engaged to Bet and gives her a bicycle. Because of Bet's "proportions" her attempts to ride the bicycle are calamitous. Nevertheless, the engagement is celebrated with song and dance deep into the night.Part II: When Gerrit's ship returns, he is not on it. After a drunken brawl in Folkestone he has disappeared. Netje is taken ill with anxiety and eventually dies. Bet sells her café and, together with Rikie and Pitouto, obtains work in a circus, where they are a great success until Rikie sickens and dies. Bet's sister Simone asks her to come to Zealand to help her on the farm she can no longer run alone after the death of their mother. After a year on the tramp in England, Gerrit returns to Holland and, with the aid of Pitouto, who is still with the circus, traces Bet to the farm. All ends happily with a double wedding party for Bet and Gerrit and Simone and Pitouto.