In his first collaboration with renowned screenwriter and longtime partner Cesare Zavattini, Vittorio De Sica examines the cataclysmic consequences of adult folly on an innocent child. Heralding the pair’s subsequent work on some of the masterpieces of Italian neorealism, The Children Are Watching Us is a vivid, deeply humane portrait of a family’s disintegration.
Ernesto is the teacher of the village, he is married and he is dominated by his wife. He has the passion of the theatre and he has written a drama in verse named "Il ratto delle Sabine". Unfortunately he has only an admirer and she is their servant Rosina. When the touring company of Prof. Tromboni arrives in the village, Ernesto decides to let them perform his play, though anonymously. So the day arrives and the theatre is sadly empty. But when the news that the author is the teacher spreads far and wide...
A family man travelling for work, Paolo Bianchi, meets on a train a lonely girl, Maria. He sees her again on a bus and she reveals him that she's in troubles: she's pregnant, her baby's father has left her and she doesn't know how to tell to her parents that she's not married. She asks Paolo to play the role of her husband and he accepts....
