Carpenter Arturo becomes a literary sensation when the children stories he writes in his spare time get published. However he comes to resent success and the spotlight that comes with it. One day he meets beautiful Matilde and falls in love with her, before finding out she's already married.

Armando Conforti, his family and his friends have a business: they sell souvenirs near St. Peter's, in Rome, they change dollars, in short they get along.