Carpenter Arturo becomes a literary sensation when the children stories he writes in his spare time get published. However he comes to resent success and the spotlight that comes with it. One day he meets beautiful Matilde and falls in love with her, before finding out she's already married.

During the 20 months before Italy's liberation from Fascism, a group of university students trade empty rhetoric for action by joining the Partisans into the mountains of Nazi-occupied northern Italy. There, group leader Gigi falls in love with his best friend's girl. As the Resistance struggle continues, some of the "little teachers" are killed, and the brutal reality of war leaves its mark on their youthful idealism.

The young Luca grew up with his uncle Augusto, owner of a shoe store. The latter, determined to "start" the clumsy nephew sexually, takes him to a brothel in Florence and throws him into the arms of the stupendous prostitute Nerina, of whom Luca falls hopelessly in love.