During WWII, a teenage boy discovering himself becomes love-stricken by Malèna, a sensual woman living in a small, narrow-minded Italian town.

The adventures and deceptions of a photographer who travels through small villages of 1950s Sicily pretending to work for the big film studios in Rome.

A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.

Marina, a widow in the flower of age is accompanied by the secretary Giuliano in Sicily, where she will spend a week's holiday guest of her brother-in-law, Count Santo dei Trinacria. Sun, sea, half-naked bodies lying on the beach: there are too many "temptations" for a sensual woman like Marina.