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.

Lina, a music hall singer, has fallen in love with Sergei, a Russian prince. Maestro Doria, who gives her voice lessons and who hopes to make her his mistress, takes her to Paris where she becomes the star of the "Folies-Plastiques".

After the death of her adoptive mother, a shy and innocent girl becomes the maid of a rich family and her arrival disrupts the lives of the people she meets.

Azucena, daughter of a Gypsy burnt at the stake, to take her revenge kidnaps one of the children of Count de Luna and raises him in secret as her own.

Film version of the Verdi opera about lovers on the run after the accidental death of the girl's father.

Nemorino is hopelessly in love with Adina but she is attracted to a dashing captain.

An opera singer hides an American soldier in his house in Nazi-occupied Rome.

Based on Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci. The film recounts the tragedy of Canio, the lead clown (or pagliaccio in Italian) in a commedia dell'arte troupe, his wife Nedda, and her lover, Silvio. When Nedda spurns the advances of Tonio, another player in the troupe, he tells Canio about Nedda's betrayal. In a jealous rage Canio murders both Nedda and Silvio. The only actor in the cast who also sang his role was the celebrated Italian baritone, Tito Gobbi, but the film is largely very faithful to its source material, presenting the opera nearly complete.