A number of different segments taken from 19th century Italian stories.

During the Ethiopian war, thirteen boys embark clandestinely on a merchant ship bound for Africa. Following the shipwreck, they are castaway on a desert island...

Saverio Luparello is the manager of Sicilian baron Occipinti's estate. The cunning greedy man intentionally lets the land turn into a wasteland, hoping that his employer, discouraged by its low returns, will sell his earth to him for next to nothing. His plans are thwarted by a share cropper, Diego Costa, who farms his lot zealously and to good results.

The story of the most infamous bandit in Romagna, who robbed from the rich to give to the poor.

Aldo Piscitello, a minor government clerk, is forced in 1934 to join the Fascist party. When the war comes, he finds himself able only to talk ineffectually in secret against Mussolini, even as his own son Giovanni is sent into battle. By the end of the war, Aldo has found the courage to stand up for his beliefs, but by then it is too late.

A man sentenced to life imprisonment who escaped from prison, commits suicide so as not to be an obstacle for his wife and daughter, who had built a new life.

A young farmer, with a magnificent voice, receives an invitation to present himself in a large theater to be hired. In reality, the invitation is a joke made by his cousin.