A state senator is murdered outside his home, and the police arrest a strange man described as having "icy eyes" for the crime. An Italian reporter finds a stripper who claims to have been an eyewitness to the assassination and saw the man with the icy eyes commit it. At his trial she testifies against him, and he's sentenced to death. However, the reporter soon begins to find holes in the stripper's story, and other circumstances arise which makes him believe that the wrong man may have been convicted

The film shows how Italy's historic national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi (embodied by Renzo Ricci) leads a military campaign known as Expedition of the Thousand in 1860 and conquers Sicily and Naples. When the Bourbon monarchy has left Southern Italy, he supports Victor Emmanuel II of Italy who achieves a lasting unification under the aegis the House of Savoy. Roberto Rossellini has said he was prouder of this film than of any other film he ever made.

In the background of the football match Roma - Napoli different stories intertwine.

The accountant Marco Vecchietti, a modest civil servant, leads a miserable life amidst the ferocious jokes of his colleagues, the reproaches of his mother-in-law, taxes, debts and citations.

The Indian called Copper Face is suspected to have stolen a large quantity of gold from a bank.

At the end of the Civil War, Jim Slade, a young confederate soldier and conscientious objector, returns to his ranch to find his parents murdered and the ranch practically destroyed. He finds and kills three of the murderers and learns the name of the fourth, a certain Corbett. Finally he discovers Corbett as the leader of a gang that has plans to rob a local bank and is invited to help defend the town from the bandits. Teaming with a preacher, who has an agenda of his own, the two take a stand against Corbett.

Back from the war, a man discovers that his daughter has died and his wife has left their house. He searches for the girlfriend of a fellow soldier and falls for her.

Damon and Steffen are paired up bounty hunters falsely accused of murder in a lawless town ruled by racketeering lawmen

Terrorized townsfolk turn into a lynch mob and target a lawman.