Giuseppe has retired after working many years in Italy and Germany. He is lonely and his mother urges him to get married. She dresses him in his father's old Austro-Hungarian army uniform and he sets off eastwards hoping that as an Italian he will be given a warm welcome. He travels across Hungary and Yugoslavia but the only people he meets want something from him. He meets a businessman who wants to start a travel agency with Giuseppe in Montenegro. There Giuseppe falls in love with a lady who works as a museum guard, but the relationship lasts only until she finds out he served in Mussolini's army during World War II. Giuseppe returns to Hungary and crosses the border into northern Yugoslavia with his new friend Djordje. Once again Giuseppe falls in love - with Djordje's ex-wife. The trio set off for Istria where Djordje will be given Giuseppe's vineyard in exchange for Djordje's ex-wife. But Giuseppe's plans have a habit of going seriously awry...