A combination of a satire on war and a comedy with war as the background. It tells of the ordinary people living on a Naples sidestreet from 1940 to 1950 under the dominance of the Fascists, the Nazis, then the Allies occupation forces. Primary among the citizens are Gennaro Iovine (Eduard De Filippo), who has a penchant for innocently getting into trouble, and his friend Pasquale (Toto). The latter is a rail-sweeper who becomes a professional stand-in: a corpse used to conceal contraband; serving jail time for those who don't care to spend the time to do the time; a substitute at a political rally when violence threatens the scheduled speaker.