Michelino, Cesaretto, Alfonso, Giuseppe and Piero Pasti are brothers. Each of them has a negative trait: Michelino is notorious for his jealousy for his wife Clara; Alfonso is penniless but he calls himself count as he married a countess, now dead; Giuseppe is a miser; Cesaretto is lazy and Piero is a womanizer. When they receive a wire announcing the arrival of the widow of a wretched uncle emigrated to South Africa, they think they have to lodge an old and poor aunt...
—Baldinotto da Pistoia