Mondo (Ovidiu Balan), a young orphaned gypsy, finds himself in Nice, France, where he scouts out potential foster families, evades the police and meets an assortment of eccentric people. He has no family, no possessions, no schooling, but shares a brilliant smile and good spirit. Being more at home in the city’s gardens, fields, and seashore, the bustle of the city seems to overwhelm him. In his travels, Mondo first encounters a magician (Pierrette Fesch) who takes on the boy as an assistant. Then he moves on again, eventually befriending Dadi (Jerry Smith), a street-smart vagrant, and Giordan (Maurice Maurin), a wise fisherman.  He has good survival instincts, avoiding threatening adults in his search for a family.