Rome, 1990. The night Italy's national football team is eliminated from the World Cup by Argentina on penalty kicks, a well-known film producer is found dead in the Tiber river. The main suspects for the murder are three young aspiring screenwriters, who–promptly taken to the police–start to tell their version of the story.

A broke mechanic turns a bank loan denial into an impromptu robbery that puts him on the run with his best friend and a starlet they hold hostage.