Salvatore is a very poor farmer and a widower who decides to emigrate to the U.S. with all his family, including his old mother. Before they embark, they meet Lucy. She is a British woman who wants to go back to the States. Lucy, or Luce as Salvatore calls her, needs to marry someone before she arrives at Ellis Island in New York. Salvatore accepts her proposal. Once they arrive in Ellis Island they spend the quarantine period trying to pass the examinations...