Alberto, a newspaper man, tries a one-time shot of living the good life with the help of his penniless mentor.

The 19-year-old Elena, who is as pretty as she is bright, works as a rice girl for the landlord Guerrini. Having become aware of her name, he finds out that she is his illegitimate daughter of whom he knew nothing. He tries to secretly help Elena, who has fallen in love with the car mechanic Gianni. But that only creates mistrust. When Guerrini's worthless nephew harasses the girl, the situation is dramatically worse.

Anthology of tragic love. A noblewoman falls for a commoner. A doctor keeps quiet about his patients' infidelities. Expectant father is sent to fight in WWI. A 1920s fascist enjoys Rome's nightlife. WWII airman falls for a girl in Naples.

Naples/Sorrento, mid 20s. A couple of small thieves conceive a scam whereby one of them dresses up as a eunuch Turk to care for the women of the family of a wealthy man. They end up messing everything up, with lots of gags and funny events in the meantime.