In 2005, Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was kidnapped in Iraq by a group of terrorists. Nicola Calipari, a SISMI agent, is tasked with rescuing her, but interference from US forces in Iraq compromises the operation. Despite the difficulties, and after lengthy negotiations, Nicola manages to save the journalist, but at the cost of his own life.
Brussels. Seventeen-year-olds Eden and Abdel carry out a terrorist attack in their school. Isabelle and Adamo, two paramedics who rush to the scene after the explosion, find Eden injured and unconscious, and load him into the ambulance without imagining that he is one of the terrorists. When Isabelle realizes that he is wearing an explosive belt, it is too late: Eden has woken up.
The lives of Anna, Paul and their little son Thomas seem perfect from the outside. Paul has a well-paid job, Anna has a home studio where she works with porcelain and Thomas is an angelic child. However, when Thomas bites one of his friends at school, the cracks of a context that is anything but perfect begin to surface.
During World War II, looking up the Mountain, in Italy, a Brazilian Expeditionary Force - FEB - mines weeping platoon is hit by a panic-attack that sets them running aimlessly right in the middle of 'no man's land'. Desperate cold and hungry, the ill-prepared soldiers have to choose between facing military court or delve deeper into enemy lines. After a tense discussion, they decide to save their faces with the Brazilian Army by tackling a daring military objective: to disarm the most feared minefield in Italy. On their way there, they end meeting two others deserters; a remorseful Italian soldier trying to join the Partigianos and German officer who is just simply tired of war. with unexpected help of their ex-enemy, the soldiers are set to accomplish a mission that so far had been deemed impossible.
At the end of the seventies the Red Brigades are plotting a new target to hit, the president of the Christian Democrats Aldo Moro. On 16 March 1978, the band of the Red Brigades went on the attack. The terrorists kidnap Aldo Moro and kill all the men in his escort.
Sasha is a 25-year-old orphan who asks Nicole, a married Frenchwoman in her forties, for advice to seduce Benedetta, his long-unrequited love. The two eventually bond over their shared past traumas and pains of love, until...
Alarmed by the news that for each working Italian there's a retiree, 70-year-old Walter decides to do his part by helping "a young person who's working for him." He chooses Piero, a model worker and upstanding citizen so shy that he can't bring himself to declare his feelings for night-time street cleaner Francesca. Walter starts giving him some old-hand advice on the matter.
In 1980 Paolo Borsellino was appointed with the preliminary investigations and the task of setting up a team which would later become the famous anti-mafia pool, investigating into the criminal activities of various mafia bands, in particular the gang headed up by Totò Riina.
Carpenter Arturo becomes a literary sensation when the children's stories he writes in his spare time get published, but he comes to resent success and the spotlight that comes with it. During a press tour he falls in love with beautiful married woman, Matilde.
Two friends reminisce about their last days of high school, when one of them ruined his shot at young love due to his jealousy and possessiveness.
Enza is a beautiful and lively Sicilian teenager who is starting out in life, but due to her naivety, she always ends up getting into trouble. She has no parents, but lives with her aunt and uncle together with her older sister who acts as her mother and tries to put her on the right path, even ending up in prison for some time. Enza, keeping faith with her rebellious nature, falls in love with Sebastiano, with whom she has her first sexual relations, but for him she also goes as far as stealing. All men are the same.