Set in Northern Italy during the 1st World War. The villa of the lawyer Giammarco is used as a military hospital. For the owner's son, Marcello a poor deformed dwarf, it is an opportunity to meet people and discover life, because he is kept hidden by his family. He falls in love with a prostitute, who only wants his money. The prostitute's lover plots to kill the dwarf, but she helps him to escape and is run over and paralyzed as a result. She becomes paralyzed after the accident; as a fellow-creature, she will stay at his side.