Elba island, 1814. Martino is a young teacher, idealist and strongly anti Napoleon, in love with the beautiful and noble Baroness Emily. The young man finds himself serving as librarian to the Great Emperor in exile, whom he deeply hates, yet soon begins recording Napoleon's memoirs, getting to know and learning to value the man behind the myth. Among seductions and affairs, expectations and fears, he will craft a precise portrait that nevertheless will not manage to hide a final, inevitable, disappointment.
Francesca, an incredibly beautiful woman, after the death of her husband discovers his unfaithfulness and huge amount of debts he left. Cesare is Francesca's best friend, he is a solicitor. Following his advice Francesca starts selling all her goods, like the house, jewels, furs and finally also the yacht. By doing this she is able to survive for the rest of the year, but has no prospects for the future and every attempt to get a job fails. Finally she makes a decision to set up a lottery in which the prize is her.
Carolina Rambaldi isn't fulfilled by her three children: Marcello, a lazy do-nothing, Lucrezia, a bossy type who produces a TV show, and Cesare, homosexual and malicious, who's a sociologist. When she writes her will, Carolina leaves her property to the one child who's married and had a child in the past year and a half.
New year's eve at "The Islands" condos. An aging countess's party is crashed by the soccer team from her gigolo's town. While dressing for a dinner party, the wealthy Guilia discovers her husband's affair with her best friend and vows revenge. Next door, a family prepares their vintage Dodge for a drive through the streets. A call girl ties up a lawyer while, unbeknownst to him, three men await the right moment to break into his office. Across the hall, a woman downs pills in a lonely suicide attempt. Two young men hide out in a bedroom smoking dope; one of them has some dynamite. As midnight approaches, each group draws closer to grotesque tragedy.
After winning the lottery, François goes to a bar in Pigalle and offers one hundred thousand Euros per month to a prostitute named Daniela to live with him as his wife until his money runs out.
Four episodes. Nicola, paralyzed after a car crash, falls in love for his physiotherapist Lucia. Franco and Manuela, a young couple unfit to have child, fly to Barcelona for a specialized treatment for fertility. Filippo and Fosco, two gays, decide to marry. Ernesto, waiter in an important restaurant has a liaison with Cecilia the new young Spanish help in cuisine.
A British Intelligence Officer in Naples at the end of World War II: Norman Lewis's acknowledged masterpiece about a war-torn city and its unforgettable humanity.
Five short stories loosely dealing with the roles of women in society. A superstar actress travels to a mountain resort, only to evoke jealousy from women and lust from men. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman's honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he's not as romantic as he used to be.