Gregorio Caccialupi is taking stock of his long, intense life. His earliest memories date back to the 1930s in Polesine, a backwater town on the Po delta. His childhood there was riddled with abject poverty, illness, and toil. When tuberculosis strikes his beautiful mother, who has removed herself from the harsh reality of the world around her, his destiny takes a sudden turn. He is an adolescent when he leaves Polesine and sets off for America in search of fortune.
Years later, as a man of endless resources and the object of much admiration, he racks up successes, losses, and women who try, and fail, to win his heart: Florencia, his first love; Nostalgia, his wife; and Erminia, his current flame. Over the years, he comes to be known as Mister Gregory, the rich magnate behind a large Italian hotel chain, a person of influence, and a man to be feared. Then, a bad investment causes him to lose everything. His path seems ill fated until a chance meeting and a surprise revelation lead Mister Gregory, now an old man, to take back the reins of his life and embark on a new adventure.