Beppe Agosti, Florentine, baker's boy and orphan, is very popular with girls, especially the servants, for his easy way of doing things and for his cheerfulness.
Called up to arms, he is sent to Catania and becomes friends with Cavalluccio, a Sicilian fellow soldier and acts as a companion for his engagement with Maria Antonia, a waitress in the house of a well-known lawyer.
Maria Antonia is sad and Beppe knows how to console her so the two fall in love and then get married.
But Maria Antonia learns that her husband's class has been dismissed, and she becomes suspicious of her, so she runs to Milan where she, having discovered everything about her, she tries to kill him, but her knife falls from her hand.
All this is followed by legal proceedings, with the logical solution that the second marriage is not valid.