Amelia and Pippo are reunited after several decades to perform their old music-hall act, imitating Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, on a TV variety show.

A young girl, with an amazing ability to communicate with insects, is transferred to an exclusive Swiss boarding school, where her unusual capability might help solve a string of murders.

For John Cuttin it all started with the first sip of the wine of her life. A "Marzemino", a typical wine of the province of Trento, quoted by Lorenzo Da Ponte in his libretto for "Don Giovanni" by Mozart. The instant he tasted the blood-red drop of nectar John felt a sort of pleasant and mysterious explosion of the senses, and from that moment on, his nature is transformed. In just three years, from shy bank clerk and faithful husband became director, tombeur de femmes and the most revered and respected expert on wine in Italy. Just as he had predicted the enigmatic "Professor" who had convinced him to taste his first glass of wine. The only event that the "Professor" with his accent and his piercing blue eyes, had not predicted was that he would soon be charged with the murder of his wife Adele. While being put under pressure by the Commissioner Sanfelice, John is to reflect on the last three years of his life, dominated by a single and mad passion: wine.

Though he is near death, blind Rene, an elderly Italian-French intellectual, continues to make his annual conference abroad accompanied by his self-centered loyal, beautiful assistant Sibilla who may or may not be his lover. Rene's domineering mother strongly disapproves of Sibilla and his continual galavanting, but Rene disregards her and goes anyway. While in Spain, Sibilla falls for a handsome young toreador who also captures the interest of Rene, though it is hard to say whether his feelings for the bullfighter are fatherly or more romantic. It is also unclear as to whether Sibilla and the bullfighter are lovers either. Thus an enigmatic romantic triangle forms until Rene and Sibilla suddenly decide to wed. The character of Rene seems to be closely patterned after Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.

During the invasion of Ethiopia in 1936, a wounded Italian soldier ends up stranded in the desert after a truck wreck. He makes his way to the nearest army hospital, losing his sanity in the process.

Twice-orphaned Jace, a seven-year-old Albanian of Greek origin, witnesses a massacre that wipes out his entire foster family in Argyrokastron, and then falls in the hands of a bunch of ruthless gangsters who "export" children abroad for various profitable reasons (ranging from beggary to organ trade). Jace ends up in Athens, Greece, begging at street corners, exploring the secret horrors of brutal institutions for young offenders or, much later, serving obscure patrons, in an underworld where violent loss seems to be his only destiny. The movie follows Jace's inverted Odyssey in a dark universe of abuse, murder and fear, as he desperately (and silently) seeks for a "family" of his own or, at least, for a sense of belonging

In Milan, in the winter of 1944, the ruthless Cane Nero leads the fascists against the partisans. Enne 2, one of the leading figures of the C.N.L., meets Berta, whom he loved three years ago, but Berta refuses to leave her husband for him. Enne 2 is pursued by the fascists of Cane Nero and, instead of running away to Turin, waits for Berta to rejoin him

In August 1954, Alcide De Gasperi, now at the end of his personal and political career, left the Christian Democrats' headquarters in Rome and visited his daughter, Lucia, a nun. He revealed to her that he had definitively retired from active politics and was leaving for Sella for a period of rest, necessary for his precarious health. Upon arriving in Sella, where he was reunited with his family, the statesman and his grandson Giorgio went for a walk in the mountains, and there, prompted by the boy's questions, he began to recount his life story, an often painful journey down memory lane.

The son of the owner of a large Italian cheese factory is kidnapped, but as the factory is on the verge of bankruptcy the owner hatches a plan to use the ransom money as reinvestment in the factory.