That night, at Fio's request, Porco tells a story recalling an event in WWI when he was still a human, where his entire squadron, apart from himself, was shot down in a dogfight with Austro-Hungarian aircraft. Porco is irritated at Fio for making such a deal, but he forgives her and shows confidence in winning. Fio impulsively makes a deal with him, declaring that if Porco wins, Curtis must pay off his debts owed the Piccolo's company, and if Curtis wins, he may marry her. Fio successfully talks them out of it, but Curtis appears and challenges Porco to a final duel. Upon returning home, Porco and Fio are ambushed by the pirates, who threaten to kill Porco and destroy his plane. Stopping off to refuel on the way, Porco discovers that the new Fascist government is beginning to hire seaplane pirates for their own use, thus putting him out of business. Porco reluctantly agrees, and the two hurriedly leave Milan. When Porco's plane is finished, he is unexpectedly joined by Fio on his flight home, with the justification that if the secret police arrest the team, they can say that Porco forced them to help and took Fio as a hostage. Piccolo calls up an all-female team to repair the plane with no males to assist in the project. Porco is initially skeptical of Fio's abilities as a mechanic, but after seeing her dedication in the project to repair his plane, he accepts her as a competent engineer and begins to recognize her as a genius. He is surprised to find that Piccolo's sons have emigrated to find work elsewhere, and much of the engineering is done by his granddaughter Fio. Porco arrives in Milan to meet Piccolo, his mechanic. Porco continues his mission to Milan, much to the irritation of Gina. Porco actually survives, but all the fuselage of his plane has been destroyed.
After successfully executing a pirating mission, Curtis tracks down Porco, who is flying to Milan to have his plane improved, and shoots him down, claiming to have killed him. Within time Curtis falls in love with Gina but is frustrated to see that she has affection for Porco. Having successfully defeated the pirates, the so-called Mamma Aiuto gang, Porco retires to the Hotel Adriano, which is run by his long-time friend Gina.Īt the hotel restaurant, which is frequented by pilots all over the Adriatic, the heads of the pirate gangs are introduced to Curtis, an arrogant and ambitious American ace who has a contract to assist them. Set in the Adriatic Sea in the interwar period, Porco Rosso, an Italian veteran WWI fighter ace and freelance bounty hunter, responds to an alert over an attack on a ferry liner by airborne pirates.