Covering only the first 22 chapters of the Book of Genesis, vignettes include: Adam and Eve frolicking in the Garden of Eden until their indulgence in the forbidden fruit sees them driven out; Cain murdering his brother Abel; Noah building an ark to preserve the animals of the world from the coming flood; and Abraham making a covenant with God.

A sugar-refinery worker flees his Northern Italy town after a woman refuses his marriage proposal.

Under provincial Italian law at the time, once a roof is erected, the occupants cannot be evicted from a building. This comedy follows the efforts of a family to erect the roof on a house overnight so that a newlywed couple can have their own home.

The death of a wealthy patriarch in 1885 sets off an interfamily power struggle. Son Ferdinando buys out his other relatives in order to gain full control over the dead man's property. But Ferdinando's nephew Amerigo holds out. Amerigo's stance is weakened when he heads for Florence and meets prostitute Bianca.

An American Infantry officer assigned to a cloak-and-dagger role in Rome uses homing pigeons for outside contact, with humorous results.

The story of the Cervi family. Rural farmers brought up to be idealogically opposed to fascism during the era of Mussolini's rule of Italy and World War 2.

In ancient Rome, the people finally oust their despised king, Tarquinius, and declare the city a republic. Tarquinius makes an alliance with the Etruscan king, Porsenna, to take back power in Rome, but a Roman general, the heroic Mucius, sets out to stop him.

Catherine Hubscher, who washes the shirts of young Napoleon and other soldiers fighting the Revolution, falls in love with Sergeant Lefebvre. Circumstances bring Lefebvre a noble title and even more -- Napoleon decides to make him the local ruler over a large territorial fiefdom. But trouble brews when Madame Sans-Gene, now elevated to the nobility along with her man -- cannot keep her frank observations under control.

A small-time soccer referee gets the chance of a lifetime when he gets to referee a major-league game. He becomes a celebrity and suddenly finds himself having to choose between his future as a referee and the temptations that come his way, especially the women, now.

After a search for his father's killers, Wes Evans returns home only to find himself involved in a bloody land dispute.