A judge on crusade to take down the Italian Mafia uses a gangster turned state's witness (a so-called "repenter") and a New York banker to do it. But things aren't quite what they seem.

Several actors are members of a amateur soccer team. They followed in their preparations for a particular audition and in their personal life. With about 6 actors this delivers a broad picture of Italian life in which the question what it means to be a man is posed in the challenging circumstances of familily life, sex relationships, sport, cross gender roles and mafia.

June 27, 1980: a DC–9 flying over the Tyrrhenian Sea breaks up mid-air and crashes near the Italian island of Ustica, killing all 81 people on board. The official version blames the "structural failure" of the plane, but a young journalist smells a cover-up and starts to uncover the truth out of the 'invisible wall' of lies built by politicians and air force higher-ups.

Anna and Calogero are in love and living together in a low-scale apartment while going to the University of Milan. When Anna discovers she is pregnant, Calogero handles the situation like the moral coward he is.

The Night of San Lorenzo, the night of the shooting stars, is the night when dreams come true in Italian folklore. In 1944, a group of Italians flee their town after hearing rumours that the Nazis plan to blow it up and that the Americans are about to arrive to liberate them.

Carlo, a thirty-something man-child, platonically falls in love with eleven-year-old Giulia.