The life of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) as related by followers who gather after his death to tell stories so that Leone can record them: a privileged and virile youth, a prisoner of war, an heir who turns away from his father and gives all to the poor, a beggar for others, and an inspiration to friends who accept the Gospels' life of poverty.

In the future, two television networks compete for ratings by producing violent game shows. One network produces a modern day version of the Roman gladiators, only on motorcycles instead of chariots, and uses convicted murderers as the participants, The network decides it needs a champion for this sport, so they frame a constant winner from another game for murder, and place him on the show.

Towards the end of the sixteenth century, a group of musicians accompany a young woman bitten by a tarantula, Anna, on a pilgrimage to San Paolo di Galatina in the north of Puglia. During their journey they meet some extraordinary characters and experience a number of adventures, but the most important personage they meet along the away is the Pope's envoy who is travelling to San Paolo to investigate the violent crisis that is shaking the region and which has taken the form of a kind of exorcism accompanied by dancing and music called "tarantism". As he tries to explain to the faithful that the bite of a tarantula can not be the cause of such grave upheavals, the bishop finds himself the involuntary witness of the power of this extraordinary phenomenon. As to Anna and her musician friends their only remedy is the age-old archaic tradition of their forefathers.