Achille, a messenger boy at the offices of a Milanese evening newspaper, is mistaken for a journalist and manages to cobble together a sports-and-romance piece, which, on a slow news day, is published by the paper. He then has the opportunity to produce a photo report and an interview with the ‘Monster of the Via Emilia’, which earns him a bonus and praise from the editor. Meanwhile, he meets Gigi, a wheeler-dealer, who immediately sees how he can profit from Achille’s journalistic ambitions and naivety. He persuades Achille to help him plan a high-profile theft, so that he can be the first to break the story in the paper with highly sensational details. The plan is to steal valuable pedigree dogs on display at a show, replacing them with mongrels. The pedigree dogs were then to be returned, giving Achille the opportunity to write a second masterful article on their recovery. In reality, Gigi intended to steal the dogs for good, taking advantage of Achille’s naivety; but following an accident, things take a different turn. The dogs are taken, but then they escape and are unwittingly swapped for the mongrels. Thus the journalistic scoop fizzles out: Gigi, however, seizes the opportunity to make off, along with the swapped dogs, with Elena, the girl Achille was in love with. Poor Achille returns to his miserable life: he finds comfort in the love of Diana, Gigi’s former friend, who shows him affectionate kindness.
