McCabe, the main character, is a street-tough former semi-pro hockey player from Detroit. He’s on a scholarship studying art history in Rome. McCabe crosses paths with a Mafia gang, that, in a case of mistaken identity, is convinced McCabe is Chip Tallenger, his roommate and the son of a wealthy US senator. Using lovely Angela as bait, they kidnap McCabe and demand a ransom. McCabe is eventually freed, but he’s been pushed too far and now he’s going to get revenge. McCabe is a low-key loner whose adversaries tend to underestimate him, and that’s when he surprises them.

 

Angela Gennaro is rich, beautiful, and spoiled. She does what she wants. Nobody tells her what to do, including her father, Don Gennaro, head of the Mafia in Rome. When Angela, against her father’s wishes, refuses to stop seeing Roberto Mazara, a low level criminal, the Don disowns his daughter and cuts her off financially. Now, with a taste for the good life and no source of income, Angela joins her boyfriend Roberto and his gang. Their first job is to kidnap a wealthy American student, hide him in a remote location, and demand a ransom. What could be easier?

 

Sharon Pope is a lonely woman in a bad marriage. To get the attention and affection she misses, Sharon goes to bars and picks up men. One night she meets Joey “Swinging Joey” Palermo, a good-looking guy who sweeps her off her feet. Joey showers her with gifts, and sex with Joey is the best she’s ever experienced. They’re inseparable for several weeks. Sharon admits to herself she’s fallen for this guy, who she begins to suspect has ties to the Mafia. Everything is going great until one evening Joey proposes and Sharon has to tell him she’s married. When Joey asks what her husband does, she says: “He’s a secret service agent.”

 

Rome:
McCabe and Chip, two American exchange students, are about to become embroiled with a violent street gang, a beautiful Italian girl, and a flawed kidnapping plan.

 

Detroit:
Sharon Vanelli’s affair with Joey Palermo, a Mafia enforcer, is about to be discovered by her husband, Ray, a secret service agent.

 

Brilliantly plotted and shot through with wry humor, All He Saw Was The Girl sees these two narratives collide in the backstreets of Italy’s oldest city.