Anaïs is twelve and bears the weight of the world on her shoulders. She watches her older sister, Elena, whom she both loves and hates. Elena is fifteen and devilishly beautiful. Neither more futile, nor more stupid than her younger sister, she cannot understand that she is merely an object of desire. And, as such, she can only be taken. Or had. Indeed, this is the subject: a girl's loss of virginity. And, that summer, it opens a door to tragedy.

Dante, a pony express in serious debt, meets Nina, a hostess stuck in Torino for the night.

Turi Leofonte is released from prison after eleven years and asks for the surviving members of his old security detail to escort him back in Sicily to get revenge on his former associates – something the authorities indulge to seize a large stash of Mafia money he claims to have access to.

Emily Delahunty is an eccentric British romance novelist who lives in Umbria in central Italy. One day while travelling, the train she is on is bombed by terrorists. After she wakes up in a hospital, she invites three of the other survivors of the disaster to stay at her Italian villa for recuperation. Of these are The General, a retired British Army veteran, Werner, a young German man, and Aimee, a young American girl who has now become mute after her parents were both killed in the explosion.

Army colonel Gabriele Moresco and twelve of his soldiers occupy a hospital in Sicily, Italy, taking every patient and doctor as hostages and giving an ultimatum to the government: if they won't admit their role in hiding proof of the use of depleted uranium in the Balkan Wars and the subsequent countless cases of cancer among Italian soldiers in 56 hours, all the hostages will be killed. Negotiator Paolo Manfredi is called to save the hostages, not knowing that his wife and daughter are among them.

The story of Giancarlo Siani, a journalist killed by the Neapolitan Mafia in 1985.

Set in 1970s Naples, bullied nine year-old Peppino is watching the world around him as his extended dysfunctional family change. Psychedelic flower power and hippie love is threatening the old traditional southern Italian family. Dad is having an affair and Mom has taken to her bed with depression. Super-mod brother and sister Titina and Salvatore take the boy under their wings, introducing him to demonstrations and love-ins, whilst caped superhero Gennaro visits Peppino even after being knocked down and killed by the number 12 bus. It is the imaginary appearances of this older superman cousin that help the nine-year-old navigate the complicated adult world.

Iuri and Stella are two brothers with a strange relationship.

Irene, nicknamed 'Miele', has devote herself to people looking for help, and tries to alleviate their suffering even when they make extreme decisions. One day she has to cope with Grimaldi and his invisible malaise.