An aging, down-and-out public employee must face the primary school examination.

Ercole Pappalardo (Totò), married with five daughters, has one dream: to be promoted from his current position in the post department. Everything goes wrong: he accidentally spits in the minister's face and insults him through a parrot (!), and finally they discover that he has no titles to fit his current position. After all these tragicomic events, he makes a definite decision: he will die to communicate from the afterlife the lotto numbers to his wife.—1felco