Felicita is a peasant woman who works as a maid. Teodoro moves from one family to another, becoming attached to everyone and always getting bitter disappointments.

Felicita is a simple country girl in the early 19th Century that, having lost her father in a work-related accident, goes to work alone in a large factory as a chambermaid. Teodoro courts her and wins her heart, but he isn't able to succeed when it comes to the unconscious arts of personal defense. He therefore abandons her. Later working as Obin?s servant, Felicita becomes attached to the rich widow?s children, Paolo and Virginia. The former?s departure and the latter?s death by disease leave Felicita deeply wounded. Afterwards her heart follows the nephew Vittorio, a sailor who dies in Cuba. In the empty house of the by this point elderly, gruff and solitary Mrs. Obin, Felicita befriends Lulu the parrot. After the animal?s death she has it stuffed to preserve its memory. Finally Mrs. Obin, the head of the household, dies. Paolo, long since married to a fussy woman who prefers the city, decides to sell everything. Felicita, having at this point reached a ripe old age, lives on memories until the Corpus Domini carnival, when she finally expires in that mystical atmosphere.