A loose adaptation of the 1881 novel I Malavoglia by Giovanni Verga, the film documents the economic and personal struggles of poor Sicilian fishermen.

They demand a better price for their fish and are urged by the eldest son Ntoni to throw the wholesalers' scales into the ocean but end up in jail.

Ntoni, has lived on the mainland for a time, has brought some new, open-minded ideas back to Sicily, and he tries to form a cooperative, but no one joins him.

In the epilogue, Ntoni is overcome by poverty and hunger, and goes, with his two young brothers, Vanni and Alessio, to work as a day laborer for the wholesalers, who have bought new boats.

As Visconti built his reputation in the theater, the Communist Party commissioned him to make a documentary film about fishermen that was to be used as propaganda in the 1948 election campaign.

Visconti took this opportunity to accomplish an old desire: adapting Giovanni Verga's I Malavoglia (1881 The House by the Medlar Tree) [3] for the screen, having acquired the film rights in 1941.

Considering this, Visconti in neorealist fashion, decided to shoot the film in actual Sicilian locations and also to use local people as actors.

The film is also often put in parallel with the shooting and development of Stromboli by Roberto Rossellini about its main actor's style and content.

Visconti keeps the spectator at a slight distance from the characters and events, and it is both an aesthetic and ethical choice, a gesture of respect for the life of the people of Aci Trezza.

Don Salvatore whistling tunes from operas, the poignant melodies played by Uncle Nunzio, the sounds of the wind and the sea, of ships returning to the harbor, cries from the streets, and the musicality of the Sicilian language create their archaic atmosphere.