 Naples, but it might be somewhere else. Yesterday, but it could be tomorrow. Annarella, a wretchedly poor little 9 or 10 year old girl, isn t able to sleep and gets up in the middle of the night to scrutinize by the dim light of an old lamp the faces, worn out by hardship, of her father, mother, little brother and aunt. Next morning, the departure of her mother for a wearying task under a cloudy sky, announce a great event. In the courtyard meanwhile the neighbours  chatter turns to the question of the real need for such a purchase, you could eat for two weeks with that amount of money. What need can she have of those spectacles? The world is so awful it s not worth looking at, and as for reading, she doesn t know how to read! All in all she s lucky to be "almost blind"! But nothing can diminish Annarella s desire to see the world around her again; she remembers seeing it seven days earlier when the optician measured her eyesight and tried her for glasses. The world in his shop was shiny, smooth, perfect - it was gorgeous! The waiting is infinite. Annarella s anxiety increases. Donna Rosa arrives with the glasses. The whole neighbourhood turns up to witness the big event. Annarella with impatient, trembling, hands puts on her glasses and reality explodes in front of her eyes.