The film begins when Eugenio, a 14 year old child, is conduced from his grandparents home outside Rome, to Giancarlo (his father) in the city, by Giancarlo's friend (called "Moustache"). As Eugenio is bothering Moustache, he threatens Eugenio with leaving him in the middle of the country. He finally does it. When Giancarlo finds out, they return for Eugenio, but he is now lost. Meanwhile we're told the story of the child and his relation with the family, and why he feels unwanted.

Oppressed by her husband, her lover, and her obsessive mother, a bourgeois woman is reunited with a childhood companion at the central train station in Milan. Throughout 24 hours there, she will experience her particular descent into hell.

After the Nazis take her husband away, an illiterate old washerwoman joins the Resistance as a bike courier in the Central Italian countryside.

Barbara gets secret plastic surgery in Switzerland in an attempt to save her marriage to Mark, but he doesn't seem interested in meeting her. She checks in to a ski resort to wait for Mark, and begins getting attention from young men. Her daughter tries to warn her that even though she has had the surgery it might be too late for her marriage, but she clings to the hope that Mark will come back once he sees her new look. Meanwhile, she must decide whether or not have an affair with a young man she's met.

England, first half of the 19th century. Edmund Kean is a celebrated theatre actor, notorious for his tumultuous private life. He is in love with the beautiful countess Koefeld, wife of the Danish ambassador, to the consternation of his friend, the Prince of Wales. He is also hounded by Anna Damby, who wants to become an actress to escape a marriage to Lord Mewill.

An Italian historical drama.

Piero is the leader of a group of university students who lead a carefree life. Finding himself in trouble and in need of money, he turns to criminal means—receiving aid from Daniela, the daughter of a rigid magistrate.

Maria is a housmaid and she is being engaged to Berto for fifteen years. Berto has not a lasting job so he is waiting for the death of his uncle Matteo to come into an inheritance. In the meantime Maria goes on with her work, first in the house of an unfaithful wife; then for an actor and his wife on the verge of leaving each other and last for Raffaele who wants to marry her. At last uncle Matteo dies...

In the Po Valley during the 19th century, a rich girl engaged to a well-to-do farmer ends up penniless and is forced to work for her fiancé’s relatives. Peasant unrest, carried to extremes by both workers and landowners, leads to violence and tragedy.

An Italian child becomes blind due to an accident with German cavalrymen during an American bombing, but regains his sight thanks to American physicians.

Luisa's dreams of love comes true in a hotel in the mountains.

Italian fugitives from German war camps unite to form "Lupo", a partisan brigade which uses their knowledge of the countryside to wage their own personal war on the Germans.

Some Italian partisans want to take refuge in a convent to escape German raids. The nuns are a little perplexed at first but then agree since one of the men is seriously wounded. When the partisans eventually leave, the Germans take a terrible revenge.

The meritorious assistance of a US institution, towards the inhabitants of a refugee camp, in the Italian post-war period, among the protagonists a doctor who tries to do everything possible to treat the population in critical health conditions. The doctor will fall in love with a girl particularly affected by the dramatic war period, but the return of the girl's boyfriend from captivity and the subsequent marriage will make the American doctor return to daily reality.

When her sweetheart Bruno joins the Italian army, Gina, bored by her lack of social life, weds Tullio. She comes to regret her decision when Tullio proves to be a Nazi collaborationist. Casting her lot with the Resistance movement, Gina is forced into a difficult decision when the safety of ex-lover Bruno is endangered by the treachery of Tullio.

A host of college girls take different life paths in the Italy of the 1930s.

Young Rosalia marries the painter Corrado Palmieri, but gets disowned by her family, opposed to the marriage. Then during a fight, Corrado kills his brother in law and is sentenced to a life sentence.

Renzo and Lucia's love story is jeopardized by Don Rodrigo, a wicked nobleman, who is interested in Lucia. When she refuses his attentions he has her kidnapped and brought to a convent whose prioress is a nun as wicked as he is. The two youths will have to go through a lot of misfortunes before being reunited and being able to marry.

An aging count courts a beautiful singer who is also wooed by his son-in-law.

Father Lebonnard, a former watchmaker who made a fortune, remains simple while his wife is only dreaming of worldly affairs and pushes his son Freddy to marry Bianca, the daughter of the Marquis de Rocafort, their neighbor. She feeds a similar project for her daughter Mariella.

An ex-boxer has trained his own son and leads him on to win the middle-weight championship of Italy. But the boy falls easy prey to a woman of light morals and renounces the hard work of sport to follow her to a winter luxury resort and at a certain moment, offers to marry her but she, not wanting to give up an advantageous connection, turns him down, advising the youth to not change the nature of their relationship. Then, the boy feeling the entire baseness of his situation, returns home to his parents who welcome him back with joy and takes up again a commitment to sport.