"In Venice lived two brothers, Marco and Giuseppe. They are happy being Gondoliers, until one day an imposing stranger announces they are not in fact brothers, but that one of them is the only son and heir of the late King of Barataria. Precisely which is the King and the Gondolier is unfortunately an inconvenient mystery. It is doubly inconvenient when they discover that the King, whichever he is, was married in infancy to the daughter of a Spanish Duke as - only half an hour earlier - the brothers were both married to two local Venetian girls.

Forced to leave their new wives behind, the Gondoliers set off to Barataria, set up a republican government where all are equal, and they reign in a coalition government. Surely this can't go on forever?"