The exemplary story of one of the most important pioneers of the Italian publishing industry who, with his vision, brought books and reading into the homes of all Italians.

Emma has left Russia to live with her husband in Italy. Now a member of a powerful industrial family, she is the respected mother of three, but feels unfulfilled. One day, Antonio, a talented chef and her son's friend, makes her senses kindle.

Franco Campanella, a former postal worker earning under €1,000 monthly, is devoted to his family but addicted to gambling. On his daughter Luisa’s wedding eve, he promises to save for expenses but, after being denied a loan, gambles away tens of thousands, ending up in debt to loan sharks and Camorra members.

An intellectual encounters a youth group that seeks social change.

Andrea is a twentysomething from a rich but cold family who leads a superficial life devoid of responsibility. After receiving a letter from his dying father, whom he hasn't seen since he was a child, Andrea reluctantly joins him in Kenya to bid him farewell. Once there, he'll find himself with a rather singular inheritance: an 8-year-old half-brother that his father had from a local woman.

Four tales unfold in the Eternal City: While vacationing in Rome, architect John encounters a young man whose romantic woes remind him of a painful incident from his own youth; retired opera director Jerry discovers a mortician with an amazing voice, and he seizes the opportunity to rejuvenate his own flagging career; a young couple have separate romantic interludes; a spotlight shines on an ordinary man.

Sasha is a 25-year-old orphan who asks Nicole, a married Frenchwoman in her forties, for advice to seduce Benedetta, his long-unrequited love. The two eventually bond over their shared past traumas and pains of love, until...

Adrian is a talented young sculptor eager to assert himself in the art world. His first exhibition in the Capital catches Gloria's eye. She's an art student looking for "her" artist. Between the two something's born and soon she becomes Adrian's lover and muse, as well as his agent. But someone else also falls in love with Adrian's work: Lulli, an internationally-renowned art critic – and also Gloria's guardian and lover before Adrian's arrival.

The life of astrophysics Margherita Hack, from curious child to unconventional girl at the direction of the Trieste Astronomical Observatory.

It's 1348. The plague has brutally hit Florence. A group of then young people, seven women and three men, rebel against the feeling of death that is about to swallow them. They flee the city and find refuge in an abandoned villa in the Tuscan hills. Here, between moral doubts and the tasks needed to survive, they kill time by telling each other stories until they will decide to return. The stories are varied - tragic, bizarre, funny or erotic - but common and central to all of them is the female presence.