A humble organ grinder is married to a barren woman. The pair would like to adopt a child but are too poor. Suddenly a miracle seems to happen: she's pregnant. Unfortunately the baby dies and the man is forced, through hardship, to buy one from a chorus girl who wants to get rid of him. After a short time even his wife dies and the poor man brings up the child on his own, singing in taverns to make ends meet. The father and son's humble life is upset when the real father of the boy reappears and wants his child back. The two men fight to get the custody of the boy.

Francesco Improta is an honest fruit and vegetable peddler who lives with his elderly mother Assunta and daughter Fiorella. His wife Lucia left home two years earlier, as, in order to help the family, she did not hesitate to give herself to the boss Peppino Ascalone, with whom she is now forced to live together.

A young fisherman from Pozzuoli, Gino Esposito, is in love with the sixteen-year-old Laura who reciprocates him with passion; but her family is opposed to the idyll and even goes so wildly to beat the young man. The two pigeons, however, on the advice of the common friend Tito, flee to Venice but are immediately resumed; she is brought back home, he in prison for a minor rat. Laura marries Tito to save Gino from prison. So they spend about ten years, the two lovers meet again by chance in the record store that he has opened and they discover they still love each other. Gino remained a widower with a lively little boy, Duccio; Laura has a daughter Lisa, whom her father Titus adores. The marriage without love of Laura, after the meeting with Gino, goes into crisis. Tito is jealous of his wife who now hates him; so to take revenge on his rival he decided to have a bomb put in Gino's shop.

At the Nato di Bagnoli headquarters, Tony, who lives with US Army officer Janet, works awkwardly and uncomfortably with modern equipment, which is also found at home. Strongly frustrated, Tony decides to return to the Naples neighborhood where he has always lived.