Ciccio and Franco flee Naples because they are wrongly accused of having murdered a local camorra boss and enlist in the Foreign Legion. They are inept but are mistaken for brave people by their commander and sent to break a weapon smuggling ring.

Tribute to Naples, where director De Sica spent his first years, this is a collection of six Napolitean episodes: a clown exploited by a gangster; an inconstant pizza seller (Sofia) losing her husband's ring; the funeral of a dead child; the gambler Count Prospero B. defeated by a kid; the unexpected and unusual wedding of Teresa, a prostitute; the "professor" Ersilio Micci, a "wisdom seller".