Biedermann accepts in his house two pedlars, Schmitz and, Eisenring who are arsonists. At the same time, the town is being upset by a series of arsons in various bourgeois houses. The perpetrators unknown pedlars. Biedermann gives shelter to the two men, wearing the mask of the humanist philanthropist, because he is afraid to keep vigorous position towards them. He is the characteristic bourgeois, who denies changing his views towards life, by fear of stopping being 'settled'. In his effort to avoid the two invaders, he will not manage it, resulting to the arson and the destruction of his world.