On the small island where she lives and works, Arianna is preparing to ring in the new year and ring out the old. But that night might not only be the end of the year, it might also be the end of her relationship with Nanni, a beekeeper from the city. The looming separation remains a mystery for the woman: she doesn’t understand the reasons for it and fruitless hours have been spent talking it over with evasive Nanni, who seems to consider their relationship an obstacle to his freedom. But when faced with another woman’s pain, Arianna manages to find the strength within herself to carry on.

Pietro is a successful businessman with a wife and a daughter. One day he helps his brother save two women from drowning at the beach. When he returns home he finds that his wife has died. Now Pietro has to take care of his daughter, Claudia. When he drives her to school soon after, he decides to wait for her all day in front of the school, and soon that's what he does every day.

A young boy and a young girl finds each other.

The life and artistic journey of Neapolitan actor Massimo Troisi.

Antonio Barracano is a man who enforces his own law in the Sanità district, which is why he is recognized as the neighborhood's "mayor." He dispenses advice and opinions and solves the problems of poor people.

A despairing man murders his wife and his son on New Year's Eve before surrendering to the police. Placed in the custody of sexually abusive relatives, his only surviving child Vito is left free to roam the trash-strewn back streets of Naples where he and his friends engage in drug abuse, prostitution and petty crime.

Alberto Tango is the owner of a small and shabby detective agency in the area close to Naples. His collaborator is Corrado, naive boy with some problems of mental stability. Tango lives by his tricks, often at the limit of legality, to fill the huge debt that he has contracted with the cynical Rava, his ex former employer and current creditor. Tango receives a call from Sergio Tudisco, an important industrial man. He wants to hire him to find her daughter Olga, rebel girl run away. Tudisco gives Tango the sum that would solve the problems with Rava. Tango accepts after a hesitation.

Gaetano, a young Neapolitan, decides to leave home, work and friends, to look for other moments of life and meet other people.