The fourteen-year-old Carlino, a restless and rebellious boy, lives with his parents Cesare and Bianca and with his older sister Carolina, who is about to marry Pietro. His father, severe and cold with his son, is a vain and irreducible womanizer who loves only himself and his dog, while his mother is shy and frustrated. Having married Carolina, the only one affectionate towards him, Carlino takes revenge for the lack of love, causing a lot of trouble. His father, furious, then sends him to a severe boarding school, run by religious men, where the boy feels uncomfortable with his classmates and teachers, and especially with the prefect in charge of night surveillance, who punishes him continuously.