Pietro and Francesca live in a little Italian village on the Mediterranean. She's the cook in a ramshackle hotel and he's the waiter, but he rebels at spending his life picking up crumbs and plots big business deals at the waterfront. His association with Rubio, an evil fisherman frightens Francesca but she is powerless to dissuade Pietro from entering into a scheme with Rubio to rob a pair of American tourists.

A period piece set in old Boston. A pretty young wife is treated badly by her hard husband until she makes use of a scandal to handle him.