In a world ravaged by violence, and other serious social problems, Joan - a character that alludes to Christ (which represents the return to Earth) arrives to Italy by train and preaching for the salvation of mankind, condemning the hypocrisy and hedonism.

Maurizio wakes up after sleeping for twenty years and goes to live with his cousin Carlina, who shares her apartment with two other women: one an actress, the other unemployed.

In 1848, as Italy becomes engulfed in a bubbling revolution to finally get rid of the ruling Austrians, a patriotic prisoner named Cainazzo begins to wonder if he will soon get the chance to see the revolution in action away from his prison cell. Suddenly, a cannonball comes flying through the air and knocks the main wall of the prison down. Excited to have a chance to see the change taking place in person, Cainazzo hits a bumpy road when one of his former fellow prisoners yells out to all the revolutionary gangs that Cainazzo is not a patriot, but is in fact a traitor!