US Army Major Joppolo is a civil government administration officer assigned to restore government in a small town in Italy at the end of World War II. He grows to understand that public administration is more than the delivery of services. It also, he discovers, is the fulfillment of the non-tangible needs of the citizenry as well. In this case, before the war the town had had a bell whose ringing provided the markers for the routines and cycles of daily life. Joppolo realizes the importance of reinstalling a bell as a symbol of the restoration of peacetime life in the town. He struggles, successfully, to locate and then obtain a bell from a US Navy ship. Thanks to him, the town is able to return to its antebellum state. Songs by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz included: A Bell for Adano / Fish / I'm Part of You / Okay, Mister Major. A song titled Why Not Surrender was written but not used.

• Debbie Reynolds
• Lauren Bacall
• Marion Ross