When Italy surrenders to the Allies, part of the Italian army is dispersed and soldiers begin to return to their homes.

An episodic satire of the political and social status of Italy in the seventies, through the shows of one day of a television channel.

In the 15th century, in a poor Italian village, the monks of a modest convent take up an abandoned baby. Unfortunately, for all their efforts, they prove unable to trace his parents. So they set up providing tender loving care to the little boy. Marcellino lives a happy life among the men of God but, as he grows up, he misses his mother more and more.

The relationships between a veteran marshal, his bride-to-be, a rookie and his fiancée are severely tested when the young carabiniere is temporarily sent to a distant town.