The picaresque and touching story of the politically incorrect, fully lived life of the impulsive, irascible and fearlessly blunt Barney Panofsky.

In 71 BC in Rome, utter disorder reigns in the form of political corruption and bribery involving the senator Cynic (Leslie Nielsen). The situation is claimed to be similar to the “Tangentopoli” situation in Italy in the 1990s: one of the politicians involved was Bettino Craxi.

Annetta, of Sicilian origins, is annoyed by the different treatments and freedoms reserved for men and women. Because of her rebellious attitude, the girl is locked up in the house of her relatives where she suffers an attempt of violence by her uncle. After returning to her parents, she finally gets married to her beloved Nicola.

Good hearted but not very wordly-wise, Dante is happy driving the school bus for a group of mentally handicapped children, while feeling he is somehow missing out on life and love. So he is very excited when after nearly being knocked down by her car he meets Maria, who seems immediately enamoured of him. He is soon invited to her sumptuous Palermo villa, little suspecting that this is part of a plot. He bears an amazing likeness to Maria's stool-pigeon gangster husband and it would be convenient for them if the mobster, in the shape of Dante, was seen to be dead and buried.