"Vorstadtballade" portrays the Munich slaughterhouse district in the southwest of the city with its traditional restaurants and its old Munich atmosphere. Simon Schwendtner and his fiancee Burgi Wiese from Lower Bavaria enjoy an operetta evening in Munich. After the performance, they seek shelter from the sudden thunderstorm in landlord Adi Duswald's slaughterhouse pub. Gundi, the young waiter, is just finishing work. The hard-drinking regulars around Xaver Ostler Feri Schegger and Hermann Ganser held the fort as usual until late at night. Since Simon and Burgi have forgotten how to get to their pension in the foreign city, the regulars' table brothers take care of the shy newcomers.
Months later: Chief inspectors Franz Leitmayr and Ivo Batic are called to Adi Duswald's overcrowded slaughterhouse bar during the live broadcast of a soccer game. In the gloomy basement they find a hanged man: Xaver Ostler. Was it suicide? Gundi's mother, Fanny Bichler, was Xaver Ostler's partner for many years. Gundi worries about his mother. Can a jointly committed burglary by the pub trio lead to enlightenment?