Set in a small Italian village in the 1940s, La Ragazza di Bube tells the story of a woman (Claudia Cardinale) who falls in love with a complete stranger (George Chakiris). The stranger turns out to have killed a fascist policeman during World War II and is sent to jail for 14 years. The woman pines for the convict and waits out his sentence, spurning the love of a writer (Marc Michel) who wants to marry her.