A company of actors under the direction of Doctor Hinkfuss is to present an improvisation on Pirandello's novella Leonora, Addio!
It concerns the La Croce family – Signor Palmiro, a sulfur mine engineer, his forceful wife Signora Ignazia, and their four daughters, Mommina, Totina, Dorina, and Nenè – who have moved from Naples to the more socially conservative Sicily.
One night, Signor Palmiro is brought home bleeding by a cabaret singer whom he loves, after having been stabbed defending her honor, and dies.
After he abuses her and leaves, Mommina – guided by the offstage voices of her mother and sisters – finds a handbill in his coat advertising a production of Il Trovatore in which Totina, now a famous opera singer, is performing.
They believe that the Lead Actress has fainted, but she gets up, and after the actors insist on written parts, Doctor Hinkfuss, who has returned, apologizes to the audience for the night's irregularities.