In the immediate post-war Sicily the La Marca brothers, owners of a sacred craft company, set up, with the consent of the Archbishop of Palermo Cardinal Sucato, the Trinacria House of Film Production, which they intend it should be the "beginning of a Sicilian Hollywood". The first films, played by non-professional actors, badly rehearsed and directed, are commercial disasters, and so to revive the fortunes of the company they have the idea to make a film about the life of Cagliostro, engaging Errol Douglas, an alcoholic Hollywood star whose career is going into sharp decline, in the title role.