Filiberto, a rich Dutch merchant, plays host to Monsieur de la Cotterie, a young and penniless officer wounded in the war who has a love affair with Giannina, Filiberto’s daughter. However, the young woman, faced with her father’s suspicions and fearing that he may not approve of their union, tells him that de la Cotterie is in love, but with another young woman. Thinking that he is doing a good deed, the merchant decides to do everything in his power to help the young man to be successful in his (false) dream of love... obtaining nothing except for an endless and extremely comical series of misunderstandings.
«Goldoni – says Gabriele Lavia, returning to the Piccolo following the success of last season’s Sogno di un uomo ridicolo – wrote an authentic and delicate masterpiece. And all of this, the author states, is “a true, completely true story, that took place not long ago in the Netherlands”, and that it was “told to me by trustworthy people in Venice at the Caffè della Sultana, in St. Mark’s Square, and the same people encouraged me to write a Comedy based on the story”».