Marie, the "Ape Woman" (Annie Girardot), is completely covered with hair; the entrepreneur Focaccia (Ugo Tognazzi) discovers her in a convent in Naples; he marries her (a condition imposed by the nuns) and begins exhibiting her to the public. He tries to sell her to a man who insists on her virginity, but she is a little reluctant. After tasting success in Paris, she dies during childbirth. Focaccia recovers her mummy from the museum of natural history and exhibits it in Naples.