Some people say that school days are the best day of our lives... but there are plenty of exceptions. When chronically bored student Alex seems to have no future, two of his teachers take the challenge to help him discover the motivation he lacks. The teachers, a couple in the middle of their divorce, will fight to impose the best way to make Alex a promising student.

While waiting for the brain surgery of his daughter Angela, victim of a motorcycle accident, the surgeon Timoteo recalls his torrid affair with and passion for Italia, a simple woman from slums in the periphery of the big city where he lives. The ghost of the beloved and sexual object of desire Italia chases him in his memories.

Friends Aldo, Giovanni, and Giacomo cross Italy from north to south for Giacomo's wedding: the father of the bride, a despotic magnate who is both their boss and father-in-law—since Aldo and Giovanni have also married into the family not for love but for money, a fate now awaiting Giacomo—has entrusted them with a priceless piece of modern art, one that looks just like a rather unremarkable wooden leg.

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.