Here is the heart-breaking story of a little shoe-shiner in Greece in the middle '60s when everyone was poor except some super-rich old men who had crazy sisters.
The little orphan Vassilis watches as his mother is being taken into jail, accused of murder. He shines shoes all day in order to pay his mother's lawyer and he attends a night school in order to become a doctor (In the Greek '60s dramas every poor boy becomes something big in the end).
The little boy searches with the help of the lawyer for a book that proves his mother's innocence. Problem is, noone believes him. But he finds it and his mother is out of jail with bells and whistles. But that's not the end of the story...
Little Vassilis grows up and now he attends the night High School. He is the best student but he keeps shining shoes for a living. In a rich house where he shines and shines and shines, he meets this rich girl who cannot understand maths. She cannot even add up. Vassilis teaches her maths but her mother is furious when she finds out that her beloved daughter, soon to be married to a ship-owner, is in love with the shoe-shiner. And so she sends the girl to Switzerland to forget about the young man.
Time goes by and the little shoe-shiner is now studying in the University to become a doctor. He shines his fellow-students' shoes for a living. The dean threatens to throw him out if he keeps "turning the home of knowledge to home of commerce". He complies.
More time goes by and the girl returns from Switzerland. She has been secretly exchanging letters with Vassilis all these years. This is the day when Vassilis graduates, first in his class, cum laude. The girl is there, so is her mother who is brought there by the lawyer who is her brother. Oh, I love those Greek movies.
And everyone is happy and they get married and the little shoe-shiner is now a doctor and he gets the girl and the money. Oh, I love those Greek movies.
