In recent papers a microscopic model for the SM Higgs mechanism has been proposed, and an idea how to determine the 24 quark and lepton masses of all 3 generations has emerged in that framework. This idea is worked out in detail here by accommodating the fermion masses and mixings to microscopic parameters. The top quark mass turns out to be $m_t\approx 170$GeV and can be given in terms of the weak boson masses and of certain exchange couplings of isospin vectors obeying a tetrahedral symmetry. The observed hierarchy in the family spectrum is attributed to a natural hierarchy in the microscopic couplings. The neutrinos will be shown to vibrate within the potential valleys of the system, thus retaining very tiny masses. This is related to a Goldstone effect inside the internal dynamics. A discussion of the quark and lepton mixing matrices is also included. The mixing angles of the PMNS matrix are calculated for an example set of parameters, and a value for the CP violating phase is given.