As the film begins, we see a young woman carrying a load of sticks on her back. In the background, we hear children calling, "Gelsomina!" They run up and tell her that their mother wants her to come home because a man on a motorcycle has arrived saying that Rosa is dead. They all run back to the small house. Gelsomina is introduced again to Zampano, the man who took Rosa away. The mother weeps, crying because she will never even see where Rosa was buried. The man is rugged and handsome.

The mother says how beautiful and wonderful Rosa was, and she also shows Zampano how much her daughter Gelsomina looks like Rosa. She cries that they are so poor. She says that Gelsomina came out strange, but maybe she'll learn from Zampano. Her mother asks Gelsomina to leave with Zampano so that...