A man and his son take an allegorical stroll through life with a talking bird that spouts social and political philosophy.

Four different directors present lighthearted stories about married Italian couples and their dilemmas with jealousy, sex and love.

Four short films by four different directors dealing with the principles of modern life.

After years spent working as a prostitute in her Italian village, middle-aged Mamma Roma has saved enough money to buy herself a fruit stand so that she can have a respectable middle-class life and reestablish contact with the 16-year-old son she abandoned when he was an infant. But her former pimp threatens to expose her sordid past, and her troubled son seems destined to fall into a life of crime and violence.