Ercole Pappalardo (Totò), married, five daughters, lives with only dream to be upgraded from his current position in the post department. Everithing goes wrong, he accidentally spits on the minister's face, he insults him trough a parrot (!), and finally they discover he has no titles to fit his current position. After all this tragicomic events he takes a definitive decision: he will die to communicate from the afterlife the lotto numbers to his wife!