Antonio is a fallen angel, a rootless chauffeur who relates only to the lonely heroes in the science fiction novels he grew up with. Only through a chance meeting with Maria, a woman struggling to hold onto her daughter and her business, does he discover a hope that's been in his detached existence.

Viper is the nickname Leone, a blacksmith in a small Sicilian village, gave to his wife, who ran off with another man. The war ends: the fascists disguise themselves first as communists and then as Christian Democrats, and the poor survive by dancing and drinking. Leone's daughter Rosetta becomes pregnant; Leone dies, and the newborn (named Fortunato) is taken from his very young mother, who ends up in an institution. When Rosetta comes of age, she is reunited with her "witch" mother and her son.

Peppino, a diminutive taxidermist with a reputation for sleaziness, meets Valerio, a handsome if artless much younger man fascinated by the trade. Peppino offers him a large salary to be his assistant—the job burgeoning into a budding friendship he mistakes for something more. When Valerio gets a girlfriend, their fledgling romance will be threatened by an insanely jealous third wheel.

Sofia and Valerio, both with divided families, learn to know each other during a sultry Neapolitan summer. They are two kids still subjected to their parents' mood swings and generational confusion. While waiting for the holidays and the entrance into a more adult age, they will learn to look at adults with detachment.

An evening at an Italian restaurant. Hosted by tolerant and relaxed Flora, various parties of middle-class people come in -- large and small, young and old, regulars and tourists, married and single -- to dine, converse, argue, celebrate, make confessions; to overhear other people's discussions, to interrupt them, to sing, listen to music, and enjoy life.