The story of Edgardo Mortara, a young Jewish boy living in Bologna, Italy, who in 1858, after being secretly baptized, was forcibly taken from his family to be raised as a Christian. His parents’ struggle to free their son became part of a larger political battle that pitted the papacy against forces of democracy and Italian unification.

Italian police inspector Coliandro — an ignorant, boorish, but fundamentally kind-hearted oaf, whose entire worldview is informed by American cop movies — protects the good citizens of Bologna, routinely saving the day and foiling the plans of evildoers of all sorts by a combination of dumb luck and genuine bravery, while always falling hopelessly in love with the woman at the center of the case.