Set in Milan in the summer of 1989 against the backdrop of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the film follows four frustrated individuals whose lives intertwine because of the loss of a planner.

The life of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) as related by followers who gather after his death to tell stories so that Leone can record them: a privileged and virile youth, a prisoner of war, an heir who turns away from his father and gives all to the poor, a beggar for others, and an inspiration to friends who accept the Gospels' life of poverty.

Somewhere in Eastern Europe during WW II. The Nazis have captured a Swedish scientist, whom they want to create weapons of mass-destruction for them, and then a group of local rebels will have to free him from the Nazis before they run out of time. To help them with this task, they have sought the aid of a couple of American pilots