Fired from his HR job in the big city, Fulvio returns home and sees a leaky pipe in his brother's church as the way to save the crumbling town.

One of the key factors in Italian unification was the overthrow in 1860 of Francesco, the King of Naples and the two Sicilies, who went into elegant but impoverished exile in Rome with his Queen, Maria Sofia. This seriocomic drama follows the deposed royals as they adapt to their new lives. The former king has recognized the political finality of his deposition, but his queen has taken to traveling in men's clothing all over Italy trying to foment an uprising to restore them to the throne. She is also frantic to have a baby, an heir, but the king has become celibate as a kind of homage to his beloved mother; he spends all his time lobbying the Vatican to get her declared a saint.

A humble organ grinder is married to a barren woman. The pair would like to adopt a child but are too poor. Suddenly a miracle seems to happen: she's pregnant. Unfortunately the baby dies and the man is forced, through hardship, to buy one from a chorus girl who wants to get rid of him. After a short time even his wife dies and the poor man brings up the child on his own, singing in taverns to make ends meet. The father and son's humble life is upset when the real father of the boy reappears and wants his child back. The two men fight to get the custody of the boy.

After the Allies liberate Naples in 1943, life for the locals is not much easier, especially for women. Many sacrifice their dignity and morale to survive.