Clara and Diego, under the guidance of the psychiatrist of a day rehabilitation center for disturbed people who attend, decide to transform the treatment center into a restaurant, involving all their other companions.

A journey inside the most sensational exploits of the forgotten post–WWII Italian underworld. Thirty years told through first-hand accounts, reenactments, old movies, newsreels and other archive footage—painting the portrait of a country undergoing major social changes.

Two segments: In the first one Felice, a baritone who has had to give up his career because of a heart condition and now works as an accountant at the Opera, inexplicably spends his nights laughing in his sleep. When his best friend, a cripple, takes his life and his wife abandons him Felice decides to die himself. In the second segment two kidnappings in Sicily, the second of which took place a century before the present one, are compared.

After the 8th September 1943 north of Italy is occupied by Germans. Italian army collapsed and the soldiers are escaped to the mountains trying to set up a resistance. Many civilians did the same and Johnny, an English literature student, is among them. Johnny avoids to band together the red partisans (communists) and tries to be part of the azure bands (former regular soldiers). But in both cases he is deluded by the partisan bands and discovers that the partisan war is less poetic and genuine that he thought. At one point anyway the partisans free Alba from Germans. When the city falls again in German hands Johnny escape with Ettore and Pierre. But, one after another, German army and Italian fascists captures the partisans and Johnny will pass the winter alone and isolated. He then finds the way to participate to one of the last attack to occupants, in fact the war will be over two months later.

Mirko and Manolo are best friends and live in the suburbs of Rome. They both live in poor conditions with their single parents, are still in school and struggle with occasional odd jobs to make ends meet. Together they share dreams of women, of sex and money, of a better life to come. Then, after killing a man in a hit-and-run one night, they get involved with the local mafia and their lives change dramatically.

Francesco Cesena, a middle-aged policeman, while carrying out a routine operation, is involved in a firefight in which his colleague loses his life. Cesena, wounded, shoots and kills the convict and his wife. About a year later two young men, Fabrizio and Simonetta, are arrested for stealing a car. Cesena and his assistant Cane, the same age as the two boys, have the task of interrogating them. Partly out of boredom at the late hour, partly out of curiosity, Cesena makes the two believe they know far more serious things about them than car theft.