After taking an Oscar for The Rose Tattoo, Anna Magnani won the Volpi Award at the Venice Film Festival for her portrayal of a rebellious nun in this gentle and touching film. Faced with an abandoned young boy, Sister Letizia discovers maternal instincts and, forgetting her vows, adopts the child as her own. The film itself was both popular and a minor scandal in that, for Italian audiences, an entire sequence was cut which portrayed Magnani and the little boy in an attitude unbefitting a nun.