Rome is on the thresh-hold of the Holy year 1925, the city wishes to present itself as 'spotless' to the outside world. The appearance of a child's corpse puts an end to these aspirations. The police arrest a small time crook who has committed a robbery but has nothing to do with the murder of the child.

The enchanted story of Pinocchio.

The film is loosely based on real life events of Marianna de Leyva, better known as "The Nun of Monza," whose story was made famous by the Alessandro Manzoni's novel The Betrothed.

A man jumps into the Tiber two days before Christmas. Alessandro and Irene chat over coffee, while Giorgio and Mariella discuss love and sex. Pietro confesses his pain to Cinzia, Nanni kisses Paola, who is engaged to another, and Andrea loves Veronica secretly. Vittorio falls for a Chinese masseuse, Nicola is infatuated with Cameron Diaz, and Iole waits for a relationship. From September to December, their lives unfold, ending happily or dramatically. Gianluca Maria Tavarelli, uncomfortable with portraying a younger generation in Liberi, returns to filming about his own age after a busy TV break.

The countryside around the Po delta is dotted with abandoned houses and farmhouses. The landscape appears desertic, almost humanless. Some people shares stories about their bond with the land while the italian writer Gianni Celati documents the tragedy and the loss of values in this new landscape of desolation, with a superb narrative style.

After years spent under the yoke of her violent and mafioso husband, Nunzia flees to Switzerland in search of shelter. Along the way, she crosses paths with her husband's henchman, Aitano. It transpires that he's a lover absolutely besotted with her.

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.

Vita and Rosa are teenagers. The first lived in Genoa, in the Northern of Italy, then all her family moved in Naples, in the Southern of Italy. The two girls are very different in temper and disposition, but, after a first moment of almost hate, they became great friends. And Vita, younger and apparently weaker, will show herself the stronger of the two.