Constant Wegman (Benja Bruijning), a 14 year old boy, raised by his grandmother (Carry Tefsen) in Zeedijk, Amsterdam. She is the owner of a cafe-hotel “De Rode Laars” (“The Red Boots”). The dreaming Constant runs away from this world of drunkards, gamblers, fighters by writing poems. His grandmother wants him to take control of the cafe. Then Constant secretly subscribes to a national poem writing competition: a new Vondel is born!