The plot tells about Antonio Peletti (Totò), a widower and very frugal baron who falls in love with a girl, Rosetta, who works in a local.

Baron Antonio Peletti is a stingy and cruel man who thinks only of spending the bare minimum needed for his son and future daughter-in-law, even though he lives in a luxurious house.

The son, in order not to lose money, steals the box of gold and runs away in a balloon with his girlfriend, but Antonio catches up to him and the three hover in the air.

But due to a failure of the balloon, they start to descend towards the sea and so must lighten it; Antonio is forced into tears and falls overboard with his heavy box full of gold coins.

He is thought to have sunk somewhere near Sardinia, but at the end of the story, the Baron, coming back from the island on a donkey on the very day of inauguration, eventually understands his mistakes and decides to finance the project of founding the school.