Marcelino is a pro from Extremadura who lives impoverished in Madrid with his wife Fausta and their daughter Alegría. His compadre Pancorbo takes advantage of Marcelino's date of birth to plot a scam against millionaire Ali Benamal, an eccentric Turkish who thinks that there is an alter ego of his somewhere in the world, born at the same time, that is, on February 11, 1870.