Vanina Vanini, a bored, spoiled Roman countess, falls in love with a dedicated young patriot who is in Rome to assassinate a traitor to the brotherhood of the Carboneria.

Shot on location in Egypt, the story unfurls like an Italian Giallo as a group of people meet under strange circumstances, and one by one they are murdered. Gold is missing so you suspect a thief is trying to cover up his crime but that might be too obvious.

An undercover policeman infiltrates a criminal gang.

A team of highly trained Italian seamen are taken to the island of Stampalia where there are to take their torpedo-laden attack craft on a daring attack on the port of Suda.

The film shows how Italy's historic national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi (embodied by Renzo Ricci) leads a military campaign known as Expedition of the Thousand in 1860 and conquers Sicily and Naples. When the Bourbon monarchy has left Southern Italy, he supports Victor Emmanuel II of Italy who achieves a lasting unification under the aegis the House of Savoy. Roberto Rossellini has said he was prouder of this film than of any other film he ever made.

After the war, Aldo and his men became gangster. But now the times are changing and Aldo decides to became a policeman to help better his men in crime. He meets Giovanna and falls for her. But he begins liking his new job and after their first robbery, Aldo tries to leave his old accomplices...

The biographical story of Puccini spans his creative life from early student days to the height of success, including his early flop Madama Butterfly and his incomplete Turandot. Along the way he encounters three women who change his life, including an attractive, beautiful singer whom he drops for a small town girl, and a servant girl who commits suicide over him.