Giulio Broccoli (Gigi Proietti), emigrated for several years in the United States in search of fortune, on the verge of finally returning to Italy, before leaving decides to greet his old friend Mancuso (Luigi Montini), who runs "the Italian Restaurant ", an Italian restaurant in New York; but the latter scams him, secretly selling him 50% of the restaurant and stealing all the savings of a lifetime and the plane ticket to Rome. Stuck in New York, Giulio is forced to manage the restaurant together and to share the apartment he co-owns with Connie (Nancy Brilli), the daughter of Mancuso returned to New York from Los Angeles after the end of his marriage ; between various ups and downs Giulio manages to raise the fate of the local and to conquer Connie and his daughter Angie (Cristiana Capotondi); but when the two is about to happen something Connie is forced to return with Angie to Los Angeles at the bedside of her ex-husband who tries to commit suicide because his new future wife has given him up. As if this were not enough, Giulio expires his residence permit, obliging him to return to Italy, and surprisingly, on the eve of Christmas, Mancuso reappears with money. To stay in the United States Giulio must marry an American citizen and just as he is about to marry the restaurant waitress, who is expecting a child from a man who abandoned her, Connie reappears and it is she, finally, to marry Giulio.