Rosa Funzeca, after twenty years as a prostitute, decides to make a change in her life and to look for an honest job that'll allow her to be reunited with her son Fernando. But things are not easy.

At the beginning of the century, in Italy, a wealthy woman Francesca (Loren), adopts a poor little girl named Nunziata. The years pass, Nunziata falls in love Federico (Bova), her adoptive brother, son of Francesca.

Two penniless cousins have a common passion: to be inventors, but they never managed to make money out of their patents. Their only hope is represented by their hateful and rich uncle.