Vittorio De Sica is a teacher struggling to take care of his family and always dreaming that Parliament will increase the salaries for teachers and life will become easier for his wife, Maria Mereander, and kids. An Indian prince (Sabu) visits Italy, is assisted by the teacher and gives De Sica a baby elephant as a reward. This upsets the landlord, Nando Bruno, the other tenants, and the neighborhood. He takes the elephant away but, like Lassie, it comes home.

Shy, clumsy and petulant, Alberto tries in every way to impress Margherita. With the hope of winning the first prize, he participates in a race.

Under provincial Italian law at the time, once a roof is erected, the occupants cannot be evicted from a building. This comedy follows the efforts of a family to erect the roof on a house overnight so that a newlywed couple can have their own home.

Luisa Galli moves to Rome in search of a respectable job, but instead just finds a job as a waitress for the lawyer Giorgi.

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

Maruzzella is in love with Salvatore, who in turn is infatuated with Donna Carmela, Maruzzella's stepmother. As if that were not enough, Carmela deprives Maruzzella of her inheritance. When Salvatore comes to visit Renato, his old poor and needy schoolmate, the situation takes a strange development.

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?

Liana, an architecture graduate, is about to get married until she is confronted with the fact she is sacrificing the rest of her life for a man she barely knows. So begins a series of romantic encounters in which Liana tries to find her freedom and happiness, but which will ultimately lead her to a tragic fate.

Benito, son of a fascist mayor, returned from the countryside of Russia, rebels against the family and joins a group of partisans.

Beniamino and his family have lived inside a school since the end of the war. After five years they have to move, but in Rome it's not easy to find an apartment.