The defense of honor, a strong value in Neapolitan society, and its effects on the life of everyman Pasquale Frafuso.

During WWII. Italian national Neapolitan Pasqualino Frafuso is a big-talking layabout who has grand ideas of his importance, especially in upholding the honor of his family, consisting of his mother and his seven less-than-attractive sisters. He admits to himself that he too is less than handsome, but believes he nonetheless attracts the romantic interest of most women. In upholding his sisters' honor he often calls himself Pasqualino Settebellezze, translated Pasqualino "Seven Beauties". Having gone AWOL from military service, he has just gotten off a train as a stowaway in an unknown locale when he meets another AWOL soldier, Francesco. They correctly assume that they're somewhere in Germany. Relaying his less-than-direct "point A to point B" story of how he arrived at this point, Pasqualino tells one in which every conscious decision was what he thought would be the path of greatest ease for himself in less-than-ideal circumstances, beginning with accidentally killing his sister Concettina's pimp (and, according to her, her lover and fiancé), declaring insanity in the ensuing legal battles rather than going to prison, and choosing military service rather than continue to endure medical intervention, such as shock treatment, at the psychiatric hospital. Pasqualino and Francesco are quickly captured by the Germans and sent to a POW camp. Having already witnessed mass murders by the Germans both inside and outside the camp, Pasqualino makes another "easier path" decision in what ends up being a dangerous campaign of seducing the obese, sadistic female camp commandant.—Huggo

Pasqualino, an Italian everyman, deserts the army during World War II. Germans capture him and send him to a prison camp, where he does just about anything to survive. Lengthy flashbacks present him and his family of seven attractive sisters (the seven beauties), his accidental murder of one sister's lover, his confession and imprisonment, his calculated switch to an asylum, his rape of a patient, and his volunteering to be a soldier to escape confinement. To the chagrin of his obese German captor, his weak, cowardly character enables him to survive the war and return to Naples, where he has a plan to survive the next world catastrophe.—<[email protected]>