Up to six fishermen and their wives are looking for a better home, as in the fairy tale. A fisherman can move forward or back according to a die roll, but never to a building that is more than one rank better than the one that his wife is currently in. Moving the wife forward can only be achieved by a kind of lottery, in which you draw wooden sticks from a bag. The more green ones, the better the result. If you fail to reach the number of green sticks determined by the square you are on, both the fisherman and his wife move back to their lowly hut and start again.
There is a "magic fish" which determines the end of the game. It consists of three jigsaw puzzle pieces, and any player who rolls a fish symbol can either add one piece of the fish or move 1-4 squares (to extend the game).