Poverty and Nobility

The writer Felice (Totò) and the photographer Pasquale (Enzo Turco) live in poverty, constantly bickering as they attempt to ply their respective arts. Their friend Eugenio, son of the Marquis Ottavio, convinces the two to accompany him and pretend they are aristocrats when he goes to ask for the hand of his beloved Gemma (Sophia Loren).
All the double crosses, mixed messages and startling coincidences are handled with exquisite comic timing, presided over by Totò as a kind of manic ringmaster.