In a small village in Sicily, the young woman Assunta falls in love with Vincenzo, who serenades her under the window of the house where she lives with her sisters.

One day, Assunta is walking down the street with her sisters when two men in a car cut them off, and a passer-by warns them they are attempting bride kidnapping.

Since he refuses to marry her and flees to the United Kingdom in order to avoid arrest, Assunta has no choice but to head back to her village.

[2] The final scene, which features Assunta escaping from Vincenzo's clutches and onto a car ferry, was filmed separately in Newhaven and Ancona.

[3] The Girl with the Pistol was wildly popular in Italy, garnering nearly $4 million in box office receipts by June 1969, and was regarded as heralding the emergence of Monica Vitti as one of the country's leading comic stars.