The story of a teacher and his students, set in an Italian high school.

During the general elections of 1994, Tunin, a mechanic with a firm belief in communism fears that his party is about to lose, so he journeys to a northern village to stir up trouble. He isn't there long before he is arguing with a beautiful hairdresser. Their debate is fiery as is his growing and impossible-to-disguise passion for her. She too is intrigued with him, but their disparate ideologies threaten to keep them apart.

Stefano, a philosophy grad student without a future, tries to commit suicide after his girlfriend leaves him. He is saved by Giulio, a wisecracking plumber who takes him home and teaches him the tricks of the trade. When Lucia, a woman disappointed in both men and conventional jobs who has started to work as a prostitute, calls them to repair a sink, for Stefano it's love at first sight.

The Sanremo Music Festival is the most popular Italian song contest and awards, held annually in the town of Sanremo, Imperia, Italy, and consisting of a competition amongst previously unreleased songs. The Festival was the inspiration for the Eurovision Song Contest.