After the enthusiasm of the morning when they arrived, Paolo can't sleep because he thinks he's a failure and wishes he could change his life. Maura tries to comfort him, but she also has some news.

Paolo enjoys composing songs with his friend, Fabrizio, to distract himself, while Maura, pregnant with their second child, puts little Elisabetta to bed. When the baby is born, at the hospital, friends joke about the heir and Paolo's steady job.

Paolo skips work because he wants to dedicate himself to what he really likes to do. When Faber invites him to perform, at first Maura seems annoyed but in the end she supports him.

Paolo, after a show, receives a proposal from an impresario to perform in his theater. Later, at the company Christmas dinner, he is given the task of organizing the exchanging of gifts, but he uses the occasion to tell those gathered what he really thinks.

After the company Christmas dinner is over, Paolo returns to Maura, who seems almost relieved that it went badly. For Christmas Eve dinner, the two join the children at the grandparents' house, but an inevitable conversation awaits Paolo.

While Paolo's parents are yelling at Paolo, Maura enters the room to defend her husband's creativity and ask her in-laws to encourage him. They are not having any of it. Paolo does go back to work, but with a new attitude.

Paolo and Maura go to the theater to see Jannacci's show, but he has suddenly fallen ill and has a very high fever. Chiesa looks into the audience and sees a possible solution.

Paolo briefly improvises to announce Jannacci's absence and, between jokes and banter, gets a surprisingly positive response from the audience. After saying goodbye to Chiesa backstage, he is approached by a well-known figure who makes him a proposal.

Caravaggio is a TV mini-series based on the life of the Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It opens in 1577 when the painter was 5 years old. The plague had just hit and people who were still alive were burning their household possessions.

Some years have passed, and Michele's widowed mother has had some difficult decisions to make regarding her children. One of these is to send 12-year-old Michele to Milan to be an apprentice at the workshop of the well-known artist, Simone Peterzano. Michele has no desire to leave home and family.

Michele has a rough time of it in Master Simone's workshop. It's clear, however, that he has talent. A Knight of Malta comes into the workshop to have a look.

Michele manages to find a home for his painting, and receives something in exchange. Still at Maestro Simone's workshop, he grows up into a man and ends up trying to defend a young apprentice from being abused as he had been.

Michele goes back home after his mother dies and there, he spends some time with his childhood friend, Costanza Colonna. He tells her about his plans to go to Rome, the artistic center of the universe.

Once in Rome, Caravaggio looks for work in the studios of 2 Italian painters who were well-known at the time. Nobody seems very interested in his work.

Caravaggio falls ill and makes the acquaintance of Mario Minniti who becomes a friend to him. He takes him to the hospital of the church of Santa Maria della Consolazione in Rome.