Three stories, very different in space and time. Lysistrata, a dancer from ancient times, Jeanne d'Arc, medieval warrior and Elisabeth, American war widow who comes on pilgrimage in Italy.

Lorella must marry Dr. Matteini, but when she goes to Naples to meet him, she meets Michele, who sings in restaurants. The fateful spark is ignited, and although Michele is poor, Lorella decides to marry him against his mother's wishes.

Giacinto Rossi, a poor driver up to his neck in debt, is imprisoned for simulated crime. He finds himself in a cell with Tagliabue, an unscrupulous murderer; Sorcio, an elderly thief; and Papaleo, an honor-obsessed intellectual who murdered his fiancée's lover. Giacinto is forced by the three men to make a daring escape from prison.

Dante Trilli, who has been teaching in his village school for about twenty years, wins a competition for Milan. Waiting for him is his childhood friend, where he is the janitor in the school where Trilli will teach.

Everyday all kind of people pass through a Police Station, especially if it is downtown. Today, however, the chief of police has bought his first car and he has decided to test it with his wife going to Ostia. But first a theatrical company sent out of the theatre, last Alfredo Todini arrested while walking wearing a gown and in the mean a series of human cases, ranging from the pathetic to the funny one, get in the way of his wish.

Enrico is a struggling journalist in the Rome of 1945. He receives a phone call informing him that his younger brother Lorenzo has died. Enrico recalls their long and difficult relationship; he was brought up by their poor but warm-hearted grandmother, Lorenzo was raised as a gentleman by a wealthy local aristocrat. Reunited in the Florence of the 1930s, Enrico becomes his spoilt brother's keeper, forever haunted by a sense of guilty responsibility towards a man he both hates and loves.

September 1943. After Italy surrenders to the Allies, people in Naples believe the war is finally over, but soon they realize Germans are still in control — and as ruthless as ever. Armed with makeshift weapons, civilians rise up en masse against the invaders — and overwhelming odds.

A young widow flees from Rome during WWII and takes her lonely twelve-year-old-daughter to her rural hometown but the horrors of war soon catch up with them.

In the summer, while their wives and children are away, four men try to enjoy their free time.

Sunday is the only day off that house maids use to date the young men who cross their paths: doormen, soldiers, sailors, timid virgins and lurid husbands, or even a doctor.