While on vacation in Rome, married American Mary Forbes becomes entangled in an affair with an Italian man, Giovanni Doria. As she prepares to leave Italy, Giovanni confesses his love for her; he doesn't want her to go. Together they wander the railroad station where Mary is to take the train to Paris, then ultimately reunite with her husband and daughter in Philadelphia. Will she throw away her old life for this passionate new romance?

A deeply disturbed and epileptic young man benignly decides to murder other members of his dysfunctional family for altruistic reasons.

Edouard Binet, an aimless Frenchman, has been travelling in North Africa for many years, and is sailing to Belgium. En route, he meets Sylvie Baron. He introduces her to Nemrod Lobetoum, a rich Egyptian carrying valuable jewelry, and Sylvie and Nemrod become friends. Their friendship escalates to love, which makes Edouard jealous. Days later, Edouard arrives at a rooming house owned by Mme. Louise Baron, Sylvie's mother, wearing blood-stained clothes. It appears that Nemrod was killed on a train after he arrived in France, but Edouard denies any knowledge of what happened. Sylvie suspects that Edouard is responsible for Nemrod's death, but by now her mother has become Edouard's ally.

A Sicilian nobleman is very jealous of his mistress and when she gets married flies off his handle and commits a murder of which an innocent man is accused. He is however tormented by his conscience.

Cousins James and Robert are in love with Susanna. When Robert and Susanna announce their engagement, James vows to ruin their happiness.

While desperately looking for a change, the 40yo Anna - a bored housewife - decides to start gambling. Luck is not on her side though: she loses everything she had, she's almost broke. Caught up by a moment of madness, she steals her daughter’s lifetime savings. She even pawns her own car - , she’s willing to do anything to try to win… Her only wish is for her lotto number to be the winning one… She tries, and tries, and tries… Till the day when that lotto number gets drawn - is it the truth or has the gambling driven her crazy and she can’t distinguish between reality and a dream anymore?

The 19-year-old Elena, who is as pretty as she is bright, works as a rice girl for the landlord Guerrini. Having become aware of her name, he finds out that she is his illegitimate daughter of whom he knew nothing. He tries to secretly help Elena, who has fallen in love with the car mechanic Gianni. But that only creates mistrust. When Guerrini's worthless nephew harasses the girl, the situation is dramatically worse.

Fontamara is a village in the Marsica, forgotten by all but God and its inhabitants are called 'cafoni' (boors). Berardo Viola wants to marry Elvira but only after gaining enough money to buy some land and in order to reach his aim he has the idea of going to a great city. When Maria Grazia is raped by the fascists, Berardo and Antonio decide to leave Fontamara and go to Rome. Here they are swindled by a lawyer and afterwards they are invited by an antifascist to a restaurant where they are arrested by the police because of some subversive papers they had.

A struggling model concocts a story of being raped and beaten by three strangers and soon becomes a media darling. Complications arise when the police eventually arrest three suspects.

A lieutenant spends a night of love with a mysterious woman. After a few years he discovers that the woman was married to an invalid and that the meeting had been organized to ensure an heir for the family