A newborn baby is abandoned in front of a hospital wrapped in a sweater. Some non-descript guy pretending to exercise while smoking a cig and running through a park shoves the baby into the arms of Sister Caterina (Margherita Buy) who lives in a convent. Silvio Orlando plays the part of Ernesto, a hypochondriac owner of a struggling dry cleaner business in Milano. The Sister is determined to find the baby's mother, a laundry ticket on the sweater leads her to Ernesto.
At first Ernesto pleads ignorance of the sweater's owner, but the sister's persistence finally gets to him and they begin the search for the baby's mother. Meanwhile, Sister Caterina develops a fondness for the baby (named Fausto by a judge) which is at odds with convent life and frowned upon by the Mother Superior.
The friendship of Caterina and Ernesto is complicated and wrought with frustration and ultimately unrequited love. Other characters (the dry cleaner employees, Caterina's mother, Fausto's mother & father, the nuns and lovely Marina-who drops blatant hints of her desire to hook up with Ernesto that he doesn't pick up on. Fool.) all figure into the story. I won't say how this all ends. Suffice it to say this movie will tug on your heart strings.
The cinemaphotography is artistic and direct, the depth of the film is in the story and the characters. Buy and Orlando are superb, their character quirks makes the film all the more interesting. I love this movie.
