Like every August, journalist Sandro, his family and acquaintances vacation on the island of Ventotene. This time, however, they find out the house next door has been rented to a lower middle class family, whose crass nature and values soon clash with their own intellectual and progressive background.
A bankrupt restaurateur on the brink of suicide is suddenly treated with deference and kindness by a bizarre group of strangers — who welcome him in their home, no less! Truth is they have mistaken him for the tax man they're waiting for, desperate to save their floundering ostrich-breeding business.
With her father on trial, 15-year-old Mignon leaves Paris to stay with her Italian relatives. The rather prim, snooty teen at first struggles to fit in with the more earthy Forbicioni family, each with their own problems. Eventually she bonds with her lovestruck little cousin Giorgio—who'll learn important life lessons over the course of his summer with Mignon.
