Wealthy businessman Domenico and penniless prostitute Filumena share a large part of their lives in post-WWII Italy.

Domenico, a successful businessman, with an eye for the girls, begins an affair with ,a minor, Filumena when she is 17 years old. She becomes a sex worker, but also becomes the mistress of Domenico. He eventually sets her up in an apartment, and she works for him in his various businesses. She secretly bears three children, who are raised by nannies. Domenico starts planning to marry a young employee. Filumena tricks him into marriage by pretending to be dying. Domenico annuls the marriage. Filumena then tells him of the three children. She says that one of the children belongs to Domenico, but will not say which one is his. You start to believe that all of the children could be his, and Domenico then marries Filumena again, this time willingly.—Steve Jordan <[email protected]>

In Naples, forty year old Filumena Marturano has been rushed home from the bakery where she works being deathly ill. When she requests not a doctor but a priest at this time, fifty year old multiple business owner Domenico Soriano - Dummi' in more familiar settings - who is looking over her, reflects on the twenty-two years they have known each other. Their initial meeting was during the war in a house of ill repute, she a naive and illiterate seventeen year old fresh from the country working there, he a customer, although not hers. It wouldn't be until two years later that they would run into each other again and begin this off and on relationship, in which he would always have the upper hand, manipulating her and the situation to his benefit which he knew he could do because of his relative economic standing compared to hers, and the fact that he knew that she has always been in love with him. The nature of their relationship was also as it was due to his frequent absences for work, often months at a time. This situation allowed him to have other women in his life at the same time. The story then shifts to an aspect of Filumena's life of which Dummi' has been unaware, namely her long term relationships with three men he doesn't know or know of: Umberto, a student, Riccardo, a glove salesman, and Michele, a mechanic, the three who in turn don't know each other. When Dummi' finds out about the existence of the three, he has to decide how it will affect his life and his thoughts of Filumena.—Huggo

The wealthy Domenico has had a long love affair with Filumena, who he's been happy to keep as a mistress but nothing more. The problem comes when she grows tired of being kept to the side and hatches a plan to become a bigger part of his life.—yusufpiskin

Domenico first meets Filumena in a Neapolitan brothel in the Second World War. After the war they become lovers on and off for 22 years. Domenico eventually rents an apartment for Filumena and even lets her run his shop. Finally Filumena asks Domenico to marry her on her deathbed, just before he had planned to marry his young cashier.—Will Gilbert