Italy was finally unified in the latter half of the nineteenth century under the revolutionary leader Giuseppi Garibaldi (1807-1882), and the whole nation was then given by him to the rulership of its king, Victor Emmanuel II. One of the key factors in Italian unification was the overthrow in 1860 of Francesco (Giancarlo Giannini), the King of Naples and the two Sicilies, who went into elegant but impoverished exile in Rome with his queen Maria Sofia (Ornella Muti). This serio-comic drama follows the deposed king and his queen as they adapt to their new lives. The former king has recognized the political finality of his deposition, but his queen has taken to traveling in men's clothing all over Italy trying to foment an uprising to restore them to the throne. Not only that, but she is frantic to have a baby and heir, but the king has become celibate as a kind of homage to his beloved mother. He is spending all his time lobbying the Vatican to get her declared a saint.