Trubaduren och visdiktaren Evert Taube, som befinner sig på sitt kära Sjösala i Roslagen, har penningbekymmer. Fordringsägare står i kö för att få betalt, och han är pank. Han bestämmer sig för att resa till Buenos Aires i Sydamerika. Där kan han skaffa material till nya visor och till en del tidningsskriverier, som kan ge extrainkomster. Han gör upp ett kontrakt med sin förläggare och lyfter ett försvarligt förskott.

The Troubadour sits at a rock beside his summerhouse Sjösala in the Stockholm archipelago. He is composing a new ballad, when his son Sven Bertil interrupts him, telling him that an angry man is knocking at their door. It is the creditor Andersson, coming with a new unpaid bill to be put on the top of all the other. The Troubadour is tired of all economical problems. It disturbs the peace he needs to be able to write new songs, and without new songs he cannot earn the money he needs to pay the bills. To get peace and inspiration for his writing, he makes a quick decision to go to Buenos Aires. By phone he persuades his publisher to prepay 7000 kronor for some future book. On the little ferry from the islands in the sea to Stockholm city the Troubadour is carried away by his imagination into the fictitious world of his main character Fritiof Andersson. Colorful scenes from various songs are enacted before his dreaming eyes. In Stockholm he spends the night at the inn Gyldene Freden. ...