Michele Casali is a middle-class professor in Fascist Italy who teaches at the same high school attended by his only daughter, Giovanna. A shy and sensitive girl, her insecurities are only magnified by Michele's overprotectiveness—reaching a point of no return.

When his destituite widowed sister-in-law—whom he had never stopped harbouring feelings for—and her ne'er-do-well son come to live with him after World War II, a mentally-ill farmer who spends all his time destroying unexploded ordnance scattered across the countryside finds a new purpose in his lonely life.

Rome, 1929. The Pope's tailor sends his only son, 35-year-old virgin Nello, to more liberal Bologna hoping he'll find a wife. His head brimming with ideas on romantic love induced by classical poetry, Nello falls for Angela, a beautiful blind woman who indulges him only to win back her fiancé.

Leonardo is a young theater enthusiast who has written a comedy for a comedian at sunset, Giordani, and leaves for the Adriatic coast together with the producer Peppino and his assistant to reach the actor and convince him to stage the script. During the journey, which becomes longer and longer and with unusual and bizarre stops, he will soon realize that Peppino's attentions are not disinterested, while he will be attracted by a young and beautiful girl, Paola.