A young raspberry ice cream vendor named Gyom lives with his wife Mek-Mek in Lailonia, in the city of Batum. Since he believes that only older men can get good jobs in Lailonia, he decides to change his appearance. He grows a beard and a mustache, but it turns out that this is not enough to be considered an old gentleman. So he buys a bowler hat, glasses, an umbrella and wellingtons. He becomes an old gentleman and thanks to this he gets a job in a hotel as a "removalist" of flowers from vases.