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

A sexy graduate student is giving her thesis presentation, which creates quite a stir since it reveals that she has just posed as a prostitute for several months to do sociological research for her thesis. She relates various stories of her experiences to her salivating thesis committee and a large audience of curious on-lookers.

The trials and tribulations of a group of artist friends and a gay gallery owner living in the Via Margutta neighbourhood of Rome. Stefano is a talented painter, devoted to his art but not interested in promoting himself, while many of his fellow artists are far more adept at selling their persona than creating art.

A young woman who has been seduced and abandoned is led to believe by her former in-laws that their son, whom they sent to an orphanage, is dead. She takes her vows and returns to her homeland after years of missionary work. She learns that her former lover has been killed in a duel and barely has time to see her dying son before he passes away.

Lorenzo, who's 16 and born to a wealthy family in Parma, tries to make things right toward a showgirl, Aida, whom his older brother has mistreated. In extending kindness and standing up for her, he comes of age. But, is there anything he can do that will alter Aida's situation or her prospects?