Giacomo, Orazio’s best friend, doesn’t think that Carmen is intelligent. She does everything she can to make him change his mind, but he ignores her. So, for Giacomo’s birthday, Carmen comes up with the “big plan”: flying over Giacomo’s house in a hot-air balloon with a banner that reads “Happy Birthday Giacomo!”.

But Carmen loses control of the balloon and one of the ballast sacks falls out. The sack hits a car that’s about to run over Giacomo, saving him by a whisker. When Giacomo looks up into the sky, however, the hot-air balloon is already far away.

Carmen is very upset at the failure of her grand gesture and Orazio tries to console her, telling her how wonderful it is just to be oneself. But Giacomo, who noticed a white feather stuck to the fallen ballast sack, visits Carmen to thank her and play together.