Plot Summary

In a southern villa after the fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies live Donna Clotilde and Donna Gesualda. The first is a Bourbon baroness who rejects the new world and the Italian language. The other is the poor relative with duties as a maid. Apart from the village priest, they see no one. Then her nephew Ferdinando arrives at the villa, young, handsome, and squirming.