Salvatore, known as "bread loaf", escapes from Caltanissetta's brewery to find his mother he never met. Before arriving in Venice, he stays in a small sea village where he meets people of various kinds.

Lorenzo, a restorer, and Chiarina, his unmarried and God-fearing sister, live in their deceased parents' house. When Lorenzo returns from America, where he has been on a business trip, he finds Chiarina pregnant and intending to marry Filuccio, the child's father. The couple asks Lorenzo for four rooms and a warehouse as a wedding gift so they can start a fruit shop. Soon, however, the restorer realizes that the two are driven by greed and acts accordingly.

Antonio Barracano is an old Camorra member who administers justice according to his own unique criteria. Magnanimous and tough, severe and affectionate, he is recognized as the 'mayor' by all the dispossessed of the Sanità district. His particular brand of justice towards the poor leads him to sacrifice his own life in order to solve the financial problems of Rafiluccio and Rita, a couple expecting a child and overwhelmed by debt.

Television adaptation of the three-act play of the same name written in 1955.