Antonio Barozzi is a thirty-year-old from Laveno with the aim of becoming a film actor and who, to make it happen at any cost, decides to move to Rome. Here he begins to take part in some films and meets Cinzia, a beautiful girl, who is also an aspiring actress. Soon there is an end of unscrupulous characters who do not hesitate to deceive the aspiring actors by leaving them broke, in particular of the cynical and greedy lawyer Pedretti who proposes himself as his agent. Between a hopeless trip to Los Angeles in pursuit of a film producer and the business of a shampoo salesman at traffic lights, Antonio persists with his quest for success in film. Unfortunately, his provincial pride leads him to make a dramatic scene during a shoot with Monicelli and Gassman. Relegated to marginal roles, during the umpteenth appearance in a film, as Monica Vitti's stunt double, Antonio has a car accident that will leave him lame forever. Meanwhile Cinzia discovers she is pregnant and, thanks to her lover Sergio, tries to attribute the paternity to Antonio.