The Spaniards under Charles V aim to occupy all of Italy with the help of traitorous allies like Don Lorenzo. Lorenzo conspires to marry off his supposed niece Isabella to Charles V’s nephew, Prince Rodriguez, to confirm Spain’s dominance. The Black Devil, a heroic masked avenger, falls in love with the fake Isabella and takes vengeance on Lorenzo with the help of his friend Ruggerio and his men.

A vengeful witch, Asa Vajda, and her fiendish servant, Igor Jauvitch, return from the grave and begin a bloody campaign to possess the body of the witch's beautiful look-alike descendant: Katia. Only a handsome doctor with the help of family members stand in her way.

The tragic love story between Guido, the owner of a marble quarry and Luisa, the humble daughter of one of his employees, ends up in her giving birth to their baby boy. Giulio's mother is against them: first she sends her son abroad and then has the baby kidnapped, making Luisa think the boy died in a fire.

A renowned surgeon becomes involved with an attractive circus trapeze artist with the relationship threatening his marriage and family life.

Stefano and Maria have a marriage by proxy while he is working abroad in Canada. When she is mistakenly accused of abandoning her own child and sent to jail, Stefano finds out and decides to annul their marriage.

Various short stories. Giovanna arrives from Rome with her husband Alberto for a film audition. The journalist Gino comes to interview the great industrial Signore Carsoli. The famous American actress Rita is in search of her umpteenth husband. Leopoldo and Angelina from Sicily are on vacation in Rome where they meet the street smart Nicola.

A former Fascist takes his son and escapes across the border into France, where he tries to avoid being recognized and having to pay for his wartime crimes.

Valerio Rossello is a judge, with a rigid and uncompromising mentality. He is married to Lucia, a woman who instead follows the model of a loving and protective mother. From their union only one child was born: Maurizio. Both parents raise him completely differently, highlighting their character differences. Until the day when Maurizio, now a teenager, together with a friend commits an attack for futile reasons against a gas station attendant. Having learned of the incident, Valerio and Lucia also in this case intend to face the situation in a diametrically opposite way. The conflicts within the family thus strongly resurface, in which, amidst rebounds of responsibility, the errors of both parents emerge in the upbringing of their child.

When peasant girl Nives is deserted by smuggler Gino Lodi, she betrays him to the police. Police officer Enzo Cinti, who loves Nives, traces her to the Po River cane-fields, where she is working as a cutter to support herself and an infant son, and warns her that Gino has escaped from prison and is seeking revenge. She rejects his offer to protect her. Gino finds Nives, mourning the drowning death of their son. He surrenders himself to the police and then walks at Nives' side in the funeral procession.