Franz "Fox" Bieberkopf (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) is a naive working-class gay who is in a jam when his lover Klaus (Karl Scheydt) is arrested for tax fraud and the police close their carnival booth. To get money, Fox picks up Max (Karlheinz Böhm) and extorts ten marks from him to buy lottery tickets. The next day he wins a lottery for 500,000 marks. At Max's home, Fox meets his bourgeois gay friends. He spends the night with sophisticated Eugen Thiess (Peter Chatel), a man already in a gay relationship. The next morning the boyfriend finds out. Eugen then takes over his father's printing company, and hires only homosexuals. Fox and Eugen go to a gay bar and then to a restaurant, where they meet Eugen's two other friends. Eugen then gives Fox a tour of his new factory. Later, Fox goes to a gay spa and talks to Max, who suggests investing in Eugen's company. Fox takes out 100,000 marks and gives them to Eugen. They go to the factory and tell Eugen's father Wolf (Adrian Hoven).
Eugen gets evicted from his flat for moral reasons (two men living together) and suggests that Fox buy his own flat. They visit one and Fox buys it, then buys furniture from Max for 80,000 marks. They go clothes shopping at Eugen's ex-boyfriend, and again Fox pays for it all. Later, they have lunch at Eugen's parents' and Fox displays no table manners. He then signs a contract for the 100,000 mark loan. Fox and Eugen go to the gay bar, and find Klaus has been released from prison. Fox lends him 30,000 marks, and Eugen is jealous. At the flat, they have a party and the ex-boyfriend whispers to Max that he might be living there soon. They go on holiday to Marrakech, Morocco. Fox pays for it. They pick up a male prostitute (El Hedi ben Salem) but he is not allowed in their hotel because he is an Arab. The hotel assistant says they have male escorts specially for the hotel.
They return from the holiday to a bankrupt company. The workers cannot be paid. Fox suggests giving his flat to Eugen, so the bank lets him take a loan to pay his workers. Eugen goes to the opera with Max, leaving Fox alone. Fox goes to the gay bar, throws a fit, gives 500 marks to the florist and runs off. The next day at the factory Fox makes a mistake with some imprints, and Wolf tells him off. Later, they all have dinner together. Fox goes to a pub and propositions two American soldiers, but nothing happens. He drives to the gay bar, the florist hits on him, Fox slaps him, then has a minor heart attack. Back at the flat, he tells Eugen about the attack but his lover doesn't seem to care. The next day he visits a doctor, who gives him medication.
Fox breaks up with Eugen, who says he is taking the flat to make up for the bungled imprints (costing 150,000 marks). At the factory the next day, he is told that the 100,000 marks from the contract was paid back in his monthly salary, he didn't have to work. Later he goes to the flat but Eugen's ex-boyfriend is there and won't let him in. He then visits his sister Hedwig (Christiane Maybach), they have an argument and he sleeps in his car. The next day he sells his new car for only 8,000 marks. Later in the gay bar, Fox sees the American soldiers and they ask him how much he pays. He starts sobbing. Finally, he is shown lying on the floor in the underground, dead from an overdose of pills. Two young boys steal his money and watch. Max and Klaus see him, but leave when they see he is dead because they do not want to be involved.
The German title of the film means "First Right of Freedom", although the English title is "Fox and His Friends". This melodramatic film is one of director Fassbinder's most accessible: the story and performances are direct, and the look of the film is polished and inviting. Yet it is also a powerful movie, dealing with some of Fassbinder's central themes such as the search for love, and exploitation in its many forms. Peer Raben composed the original music. The script was written by Chrisian Hohoff and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who also directed.
