An Italian Fable takes place before, during and after World War II, when fictional hero Mark OBrien, an OSS spy, meets with real-life figures Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Pope Pius XII before switching places with his look-alike cousin, Irish Monsignor Tom Shaw during the war. After the war, FDR makes him Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces, Italy, where he begins a 5-year partnership with post-war Italian President Alcide DeGasperi that dramatically changed Italy.