The folksy Jeanne tries to take good care of the students who rent a room above her little candy store.

Traces the Beats from Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac's meeting in 1944 at Columbia University to the deaths of Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs.

Wandering the Brussels streets at night, two bums encounter an intriguing figure that will inspire their night out - and perhaps their lives.

Ria is furious when her mother sends a boy from their neighborhood 'because it's about time she got dating' and gets rid of him mercilessly. Jo needs a volunteer to practice for his dentists exams, but the only willing mouth is Ria's, which he prefers to see closed. When Jef receives instructions from Jeanne to spend his whole day off cleaning, while Odilon goes trough advertisements from cleaning ladies, he hopes to solve both problems by having his candidates do 'test cleaning' in his house, without telling any there are other applicants.

Jeanne is terrible at keeping her shop's accounts, and the tax official Mr. (no other form of address allowed) De Stipperaere is as good at spotting every error as he's bad at tolerating any, nor even formal amateurism- she gets one week to present to him fully updated accounts. That calls for a computer; Charles-Victor has the only PC, but says Koen must do the coaching, who alas barely manages to teach Jeanne the easiest computer game. Then Betty's lover of the day offers to help out so he can get in freely. Jeanne was finally making serious progress, but one wrong manipulation and it's all gone- total panic in a lake of tears. Desperate to get rid of the endless nagging and nocturnal computer-use in his room, C-V accepts to do it himself, by hand. When the tax man arrives the next day, it's another one: De Stipperaere has been committed with a nervous breakdown, so the rules change...

Jef just raided the moved-out neighbors' abandoned wine cellar, but must cede bottles to hush student witnesses. Jeanne is initially pleased to hear a lady is starting a new business next door, but pretends the place is already taken -by a non-existent dentist- when she learns it's to be an erotica shop, and even decides to buy it herself and convert it into extra student rooms, to Jef's horror, while Odilon even looks forward to all the work. Jef pretends to applaud the 'pension plan' but promised his mate Sander an expensive bottle to make a terrifyingly expensive estimate, shoves him off when he hears Filip and Odilon's estimate scared Jeanne off, then must promise two bottles as Filip suggests boarding Jeanne's mother. When Odilon, left alone to pay Sander, ignorantly gives him two worthless rosé bottles instead of a good one, the crook pretends their own home has a concrete affectation; Jeanne soon finds out, when a professional explains, neither of the old houses contains concrete... Arnold is hyper-nervous as he must part-take at a professor's home in a discussion in German on the Kyoto norms, so Saskia orders a friend to give him a relaxing massage; Stef pretend it's a fat monster and has Arnold pay him to be massaged by the nice girl in his place; Lies and Saskia find out and announce a 'sensual massage', which Filips steals this time, ignoring it's actually a giant male chiropractor.

Jeanne wants a new mattress, so her old one (double bed) would be a good catch for a student who wants 'company', but Jef is against as it undermines an excuse to take days off because of his 'bad back'. Mimi has failed her drivers test for the n-th time, so she persuades student Lucas to give her paid lessons, and does him some domestic favors, such as mending his pants and teaching him how, which makes Jeanne feel passed by as 'maternal' figure; Gentil takes it they have an unnatural intimate relationship and even informs her jealous husband Jos, who bursts in but actually surprises and beats up Hugo with his girlfriend Nicole and even Gentil.

It's nearly Christmas time, but Filip only thinks about cramming, so he tries to enforce brutal silence-rules on the other students. Stef gets scared when Lies presents him to her high-pregnant friend Myriam. Jef never liked their annual tame, mushy Christmas parties with Odilon and The Sound of Music, but when he hears Jeanne probably will invite her mother, anything else will do, so he volunteers his wife to replace a sick actress in the Nativity play Saskia helps organizing; to Jef's horror, the ladies volunteer him when an actor also gets the flue, actually voluntarily joined by Odilon, who keeps tinkering with the text and thus messes up the Biblical story, which didn't get young customer Vic's approval anyway. Arnold wrongly overhears future father Seppe would have beaten Myriam black and blue, but he is still just in time to witness the slightly premature birth at Jeanne's place...

Jef and Jeanne have a wedding to attend next Saturday, so Odilon must fit her potential new dresses. Billy is used to waking up with a hangover, but this time it's a live sheep. Jeanne, who always opposed pets, starts mothering it despite everyone else's practical objections and alternatives, but it keeps breaking loose and causing expensive damage, and a notice 'free sheep' in the shop's window finds no takers, at least none to Jeanne's taste- till it eats Jeanne's new party dress. When old organ grinder Piere's tame monkey runs away, he is persuaded to try it with a sheep. Only then Billy finds out it's called Stella (a Belgian lager brand) and was only on loan from equally drunk 'friend' Patrick who desperately wants it back. Fortunately Piere returns it as it ate children's sweets.

Brigitte is confused and sends even more contradictory signals to her lover Evert about the part of sex in their relationship, which Hugo's and Lies's advice to the lovebirds makes even worse. Jef wants to attend a billiards tournament in Liège instead of qualified club-mate Robert. That leads to weirdly convoluted babysitting intrigues which get completely out of control for him, Jeanne and several babies' parents.

Lus accepts to mind a friend's pet- an adult boa constrictor! Dieter expects an unwanted female visitor, Daisy, but makes Jo believe he only pretends not to be interested, so he will take her off his hands. Jeanne hears a rumor -from Mimi- that her hypochondriac ma has a gigolo, but in fact it's the kind mister Martin Molenaers who brought her to hospital after swallowing a fish-bone, who she mistrusts however; searching what she thinks to be his loot from ma's flat, she frees the boa...

Jeff has taken a day off on his birthday. Jeanne pretends she forget it, as he frequently did with hers and their anniversary, while a new fishing rod is to be delivered in the evening- just what he wants, and desperately tries to drop hints about with Odilon's clumsy help, which seems to get him stuck with a second-hand one. Stef offers sneaky, mischievous help which goes wrong... Hugo may figure as candidate on the TV show "Blind date", but Filip and Jeanne fear he'll make a laughing stock of himself and indirectly embarrass them, so he gets coaching from Stef and Lies, but doesn't take that seriously, so all the students play their mock version, which 'gnome Plop' Filip sarcastically sabotages, so...

Jef and Odilon lie to Jeanne they'll put up wallpaper at Odilon's so they can go to a snooker match. Jeanne's complaints about the many white lies leads to a kitty which gets 100 Belgian francs (2.5 Euro) per lie- a costly arrangement, and not just for the students, while the truth can hurt more then lies... Flowers from a secret admirer are delivered daily for Betty by a cheerful kid who thinks Jeanne is the recipient, but there's a twist. Odilon surprises everyone by solving crosswords definitions even beyond Charles-Victor. Pranks escalate.

Jeanne joins Mimi's clay modeling class, which has already started. Tineke asks the boys to help her think up an original exclusive mothers day gift, but is out of the big money for once; failing ideas, she sells her chic scarf cheap to Mimi and plans to raise a lot more by a major clothes sale. Jef decides Jeannes going to class twice a week means he can also go to the billiards club a day a week more often by joining the clubs board as treasurer. When the students make fun of her first clay model, Jeanne considers stopping, but Jef needs her to continue; so he makes Tineke offer to keep the shop some hours so Jeanne can practice to catch up, while she can add her marked-down clothes to the sweets on sale; Gentil decides he can then also sell CDs there. After her first modeling after a model proves disastrous, Jef gets his club president to play an art critic to praise her back to self-confidence, but of course Odilon lets the cat out of the bag, so she plans a revenge with Lucas' help which costs Jef his ambition and a small fortune.

Jo has an eye on Veronique and asks her for dinner, Koen has just a crush, both feel insulted when she refuses, so consider helping jealous Ria's plan to put the 'snake' rival in her place, but desert it as soon as Veronique invites Jo instead, but later Koen, in the end even Jef and Odilon. Jeanne and Jef are startled when Odilon announces he's planning to get married, without a lover. Jef finds out it's just for conversation, so offers Jeanne without the pains and perils of married life. The students encourage him to respond to a contact ad from widow seeking a handyman, Ria convinces Jeanne it must be a sordid date instigated by vile Veronique.

Hugo is elated his girl-friend Sylvie accepts to coach him with a course at her home, Saturday morning, but Filip refuses to lend him a 'foulard' (tie); Lies advises him to learn about plumbing, Sylvie's dad's job, but his lack of talent is as great as his IQ is low. Jeanne hears a sweets firm is looking for an executive, and she would fit the profile according to a salesman. Jef pretended to be exhausted after a fishing 'accident', but when he hears Jeanne could earn thrice his pay, promises to take care of both household and students if she takes the job, believing that would still leave him most of the day off as he would give up his city job. For the shop, they need a salesperson- Odilon brings an ex-con, but Jeanne fears the girls would find him too sexy, so Jos pretends to be gay; furthermore, he takes charges of stopping Jef and Odilon from deserting domestic duties to go fishing...

When the postman refuses to hand the water bill to Jeanne because it's in Jef's name, she's furious her husband has time for everybody and the Internet but not for her and the post. Arnold believes Filip's claim his ruthless marketing techniques can catch any girl in no time; he must pretend to be studying veterinary science as his desired Joke is with Greenpeace- she dumps her pet dog Pluisje on Arnold, next even an aunt's cat, and ... Stef has volunteered to cast a last-minute replacement for the sick lead in his professor's movie; Odilon fits except that he can neither memorize nor properly read his lines, so Stef asks candidates via Internet. Lies convinces Jeanne to try chatting herself, which instantly creates a nocturnal surf-monster, oblivious of the household; Jef and Saskia set her up with a fake sex maniac and Stef's audition candidates...

One of Odilon's friendliest prisoners, master burglar Celle [short for Marcel in Dutch], is being released after ten years. Princess of naiveté Sam gets Jeanne to offer him temporary lodging in her room, yet everybody freakishly hides and locks everything of value away, even though Jef correctly points out a professional finds and cracks everything anyway. Jeanne has a small fortune in cash from the shop in a small metal box. Charles-Victor, who is most suspicious of all, barricades his room with triple padlocks, but ends up locking himself out just when he's in a big hurry to get to class to present his economics dissertation, which is thus about to become part of the course.

After an article in the paper about a fire in another private students' home, Jeanne realizes it's time to invest in legally required fire-extinguishers etcetera. After a hefty quote from a professional Jef decides he needs to save enough to buy a humidifier for his plants hothouse, by doing the job with Odilon, who also agrees to send a colleague as fake fire inspector so Jeanne will buy their story, while Jeanne asked someone else to scare Jef into hiring a professional firm, and a real one responds to Ria's notification, but who is which one? Meanwhile Jo and Betty exchange fire - and water pranks.

After Filip complains about Stef going to the shower 'bare-arse' (in fact boxer shorts only), the students come up with a series of plans to switch rooms for various reasons, such as a peephole to lure Arnold so he'll leave his comfy room for Filip. Meanwhile Jef, having exhausted his medical excuses not to help out repairing the fishing clubhouse, pretends he has to catch a mole in this backyard urgently. Misunderstandings lead to people believing Jef's accidental black-eye is proof Jeanne beats him.

The girls eagerly expect Polish exchange student Olga Kornatowski, the boys can't spare a moment for the presumed 'backward wart hog', so Odilon is assigned volunteer to pick her up- till she arrives on her own, and proves an economics major looking as good as Betty: now Jo and Charles-Victor rival for her company, even spending money on her, only to be disappointed in the end. Jeanne looks forward to arousing envy on the annual party of her supermarket cash register ex-colleagues, but that requires an expensive new dress, for which Jef believes he's entitled to take some compensation by cooking his mother's normally banned favorite recipe, pig's brains, disgusting to the others except Olga...

Jeanne was deeply disappointed by the city's annual carnival sales, but then the Viennese circus's director turns up, whose dromedary has eaten all its famous Viennese sweats, so he's about to place a humongous order in an old-fashioned shop just like hers. Sam drops in a surprise, which elates the girls as much as it fails to appeal to Jef and Charles-Victor: Jos, despite the boys name the baby daughter of her vague friend Willemeyn who is moving, which they 'may' babysit till evening, or as C-V predicts much longer so the irresponsible mother can be young again. He's certainly right about that evening...

Odilon's diagnosis is inescapable: Jef's motorbike is beyond repair; now he refuses to go to work at all as long as Jeanne, who wants 'bargain' carpet first, refuses to buy a new one. Hugo's clarion playing is not only utterly unmusical, it's also so loud that Gentil can't stand it- when he tries to record it, Dieter and Hugo find his mike and blow straight into it, resulting in deafness and possible thrombosis- it soon turns out he pretends it to be far worse hen it is, so he can finally get Hugo's larger room. Odilon gets free use of one of his detainees' chopper, so now Jef needs another excuse to hide he can't ride such a machine, notably 'needing' a leather suit which he presumes too expensive; when Jeanne whips up two suits on free loan, his last chance are driving lessons- from little Pieter!

Stef enthusiastically tells Jeanne his professor chose her 'old-fashioned' sweets shop as location for a movie, but that adjective causes a firm no. For once, Hugo is smarter about handling Jeanne, telling her it could be great publicity and promising her a small part; as Stef can't get anyone in this late, they hand her a fake script-version to scare her off, making her character a transsexual; that fails to daunt her, until young customer Jonas tells her it's probably a nude part. Filip wants Lies to join his family on their new yacht; alas she says an invitation must be extended to the other students as well, so he tries to scare them off individually, but when she insists he must get them back on board- Hugo simply is paid twice. When Stef's professor turns up to muster the store Jeanne objects to any damages, till she learns a soap star is in the movie; new Stef tells Jeanne to get a costume in Brussels 'while Stef tends the shop' so she would be out the entire shooting day, but she decides to make sure she's back early. Meanwhile Jef and Odilon test new, disgusting fisherman's lure feed.

Odilon is excited about a letter announcing his former flame Astrid is finally coming all the way from Congo (Africa). Charles-Victor is entering a photographic portrait-contest, the winner of which will be published in Vogue- Betty accepts to model at his terms, Billy is convinced it's all just a pick-up ploy. Odilon asks C-V to photograph him, to send his picture to Astrid before she flies to Belgium; C-V makes the grave error to recruit clumsy Odilon as assistant in charge of the steam machine, so everything goes wrong. Once he has his photo, it gets lost...