March 1945: an air raid destroys a fishing village. The homeless are hosted by Brother Angelo in the convent of San Fruttuoso in Camogli: years pass but the houses are not rebuilt and when the prior dies, the convent is sold to the rich engineer Milone, determined to transform it into a holiday complex. To prevent the homeless from ending up on the streets, Brother Angelo devises every possible expedient, even a fake miracle while waiting for San Fruttuoso to perform a real one.

Anna, only daughter of Felice Pastorino, a rich Genoese merchant, falls in love with a young sailor, Eugenio Devoto, with whom she has exchanged only a few words. Pastorino, a kind-hearted man, sincerely loves his daughter but is also very attached to money and would like to marry her to his cousin Alessandro Raffo, a man who is no longer young but wealthy, narrow-minded and materialistic.