The film tells the story of Ilya, a contented Greek prostitute (Melina Mercouri), and Homer (Dassin), an earnest American classicist.

It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Mercouri), Best Costume Design, Black-and-White, Best Director and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay as Written Directly for the Screen (both Dassin).

[5] Ilya, a self-employed, free-spirited prostitute who lives in the port of Piraeus in Greece, meets Homer Thrace, an American tourist and classical scholar and passionate Philhellene.

Self-employed prostitute and free spirit Ilya, in the port city of Piraeus, Greece, has a dedicated following of preferred “clients” whom she entertains at weekly receptions on Sundays, a day she takes off from “business.” At the shipyard, when Ilya impulsively strips off her clothes to dive in for a dip in the ocean in her underwear, she challenges the “slaves” to join her, and many workers enthusiastically dive in.

“Noface”, whose naked face behind large sunglasses no one ever sees, owns apartment houses where prostitutes pay him high “rents” to work.

To this end, Homer proposes to Ilya to conduct a two-week experiment, offering to pay her for her exclusive time to give her lessons in classical subjects and culture.

Tonio and his friends arrive to get Ilya, taking her to their local bar, where typically, Homer is in trouble because the know-it-all has told the guitar player that he is not a real musician if he cannot read music.

When the film was first released in Italy in 1960, the Committee for the Theatrical Review of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities rated it as VM16, not suitable for children under 16.

[6] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised the movie as a "droll and robust spoof" and commended Mercouri's and Dassin's "superb" performances:It is the bouncing and beaming expansiveness with which Miss Mercouri endows this woman and the patience with which Mr. Dassin tries to urge her to simmer down, to assume a little moral decorum and abandon some of her non-intellectual and professional whims, that make for tremendous good humor.... **** While one might take some minor exception to the occasional illogic of the script, it's no use, since illogic is the human disposition most frankly acknowledged and happily applauded in this film.