Paris, 1900: a couple are horribly murdered by a masked man with a metal claw who rips their hearts out. The sole survivor and witness to the massacre is a young girl. Twelve years later in Rome a new wax museum is opened, whose main attractions are lifelike recreations of gruesome murder scenes. A young man bets that he will spend the night in the museum but is found dead the morning after. Soon, people start disappearing from the streets of Rome and the wax museum halls begin filling with new figures...

Matriarch Adele's death prompts an unexpected and often incendiary reunion for the large Gori family – unaware that inside her coffin lie also the stolen goods of a robbery by her son Danilo.

At the end of the 18th century, a couple of libertine Tuscan aristocrats welcome in their villa (and into their bedroom) an handsome young revolutionary, hoping to rekindle their marriage.