For years through the terrible Thirty Years War Mother Courage has followed the'swedish armies with her mobile canteen, and her three children (each by a different man). Life during war is reduced simply to a series of business transactions: soldiers rob peasan's and steal from their own'stores, peasan's sell their last cherished possessions. Mother Courage's business and motherly instincts constantly betray her. Finally, alone, she hitches he'self to her wagon and continues to follow the army.