A young student of an upper-class background who is surrounded by classmates that are of working-class backgrounds, after a novel in diary format by Enrico Bottini.

The story of Luca, a young man with misguided ambitions, who wants to prove his abilities with a great feat, with a tragic gesture. Here, the story fits into and dissolves into that of Lee Oswald, who kills President Kennedy to go down in history. Brusati wants to portray a wayward youth driven by false heroic ideals.

After discovering her boyfriend is married, a young woman attempts suicide but survives and falls for the priest who took her call, leading to complications with his vow of celibacy.

The adventures of three university students who live in the same boarding house. Ugo, the most serious one, is in love with Lea, daughter of the lodger. Aldo is a practical joker, Bartolozzi is the shiest. Ugo and Lea's love story becomes stormy because of Aldo.

Louise of Habsburg-Lorraine, young and beautiful wife of the Crown Prince of Saxony, manifests democratic sentiments that make her pleasing to the people, but not to the court. In 1902 old King George would like to have her committed to an asylum, but she escapes to Florence where she meets and loves the musician Enrico Toselli. Theirs will be a dramatic affair, with the man's death and her madness.

After saving an infant of royal blood, knight Brancaleone forms a new army and sets out to return the baby to his father: a prince fighting in the Crusades.

Released from the orphanage at the age of thirty, a man dreams of finding his mother.

Michele, a bourgeois intellectual, adhered to fascism for years. After fighting abroad, he returns home in 1943, but is now tired and refuses to join the Republic of Salò. His comrades still want him with them, but this Social Republic, imposed by the SS arms, does not convince him. The war continues and the situation does not allow one to remain neutral.