Alberto Nardi (Alberto Sordi) is a Roman businessman who fancies himself a man of great capabilities, but whose factory (producing lifts and elevators) tethers perennially on the brink of catastrophe. Alberto is married to a rich and successful busin...
Cencio, a roman pilferer, periodically is in prison. He meets Cesira that soon become his partner in crime. With Cesira's help Cencio try the big hit to a jewelery. But the lucky break is over....
Against the background of Rome freed from Nazi-fascism in 1945, two personal dramas interweave between a young man, reduced to despair by his girlfriend and a still underage girl, who tries to prostitute herself to survive....