The movie tells the little stories of a group of families who live in the same building in Rome as seen from the eyes of Sandrino, a little kid who is awaiting for a total eclipse of the sun, that really happened during summer of '61, and it was was fully visible from Italy. He sees his family life, a young girl who is about to marry a man she doesn't love, an old man who has just died and whose relatives fight for his inheritance, a blind trumpet player who hopes to recover, his little friends...

Exasperated by her husband Matteo, who lives with the nightmare of an imminent third world war, Virginia asks her brother Arturo for help. He decides to indulge the man's phobia by creating a fake newspaper announcing the outbreak of the conflict. The ploy works and Matteo seems to calm down, but the fear of the return of war reawakens fears and concerns in those around him that were thought to be buried.