A number of different segments taken from 19th century Italian stories.

A taxi driver, with singing ambitions, finds an abandoned baby in his cab and begins to look for his mother. He doesn't find her but succeeds in finding two people who want to adopt the child.

A famous painting by Antonello da Messina, "the man with a gray glove", has been entrusted to an old restorer. When, subsequently, the painting is withdrawn from the restorer's studio and exposed, the art critic Drago discovers that it is not the original, but a copy.

A young man in love with a girl whose father--his employer--does not approve of him, disguises himself as a hunchback to get into the father's good graces.

Rocco and his brother Martino are two rich country-estate owners who descend upon the city in search of adventure.

During the fascist era, Adriana a beautiful young model, becomes a prostitute after a love affair gone wrong. She meets Mino, a partisan who falls in love with her and wants to redeem her.

The story is taken from the drama "I Pescatori" (The Fishermen) by Raffaele Viviani, and is set in a fishing island off the coast of Naples (clearly identifiable with Ischia). Here lives Concetta, a widow with two children, who now lives with another man who however secretly lusts after his stepdaughter until when, on a stormy night...

The castle of the counts of Ventimiglia is conquered by the spanish Van Gould, who kills the count and sends his three sons in the Antilles. The ship is attacked by pirates and the three brothers are liberated. They decide to join the pirates to have revenge on Van Gould, who has also moved to the Antilles on the command of the viceroy.

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