During the Middle Ages, a traveling executioner hires an apprentice to learn the finer points of torture and execution, and a young girl is given by her parents to a Catholic convent.

The stories revolve around the investigations of Valentina Rosselli, and the intrigues in which she gets involved because of her curiosity and her wonderful physical appearance. In the Shareholders She is often assisted by the antiquarian Philip Rembrandt, with whom she shares an ambiguous relationship.

In Naples, Professor Bellavista is a retired man, passionate about the philosophy and thought of Ancient Greece. Every day, in his luxurious apartment, he teaches his lessons of life to the poor-nothing (his friends), who are dazzled by his reasoning. One day, however, the quiet life of the building of Bellavista will be disturbed by the arrival of a director of Milan. Between Naples and Milan there contrast, because the Neapolitans are accustomed to enjoy a quiet life, always based on the "philosophy of pleasure and delay", while the northern Italians are very strict and punctual.

A group of friends decide to go on vacation and they use an agency, the Via Col Vento tours, to organize it. The latter promises them a holiday of dreams and absolute fun.

As young accident victim lays unconscious in his hospital bed. his subconscious projects himself into a world where he is the new Messiah. There he will live in a terribly decadent and corrupt society until his fate is finally revealed...