 Assola is an imaginary village on the border between Italy and France and the borderline crosses the village itself. The French customs agent Ferdinand is always trying to catch the Italian smuggler Giuseppe. But Giuseppe discovers that Ferdinand was actually born in Italy and therefore he can t be a French customs agent. So Ferdinand finds himself married to Giuseppe s wife, a deserter and he is arrested. But when he is trying to kill all his fellow villagers from the mountains with a rifle, Giuseppe finds the proof on an old bottle of wine that Ferdinand is, after all, a Frenchman.