It stars Nino Manfredi and Gino Cervi, and was inspired by the satirical comedy "The Government Inspector” by Nikolai Gogol.

The film portrays the corrupt administration of an Apulia town during the Fascist Regime of 1937, after it has learned, in a roundabout way, of a pending anonymous visit of a government inspector from Rome.

The inspector will determine if the administration adhered to the government's strict guidelines for economic and social planning.

They resort to pathetic staged measures to make it appear that they remained "honest administrators" and "good fascists".

An unsuspecting insurer also coming from Rome, Omero Battifiori, arrives in town for his work and he is mistaken for the inspector.