A young woman, her sister-in-law and her ten year old daughter are violently traumatised by invading Austrian soldiers. Later, in Verona, both woman discover they are pregnant. After a suicide attempt, one has an abortion the other keeps her child - and both faces struggles with friends and family as they return to their homes.
Started in the summer of 1943 by Lattuada and , the because of the war that raged in Italy at the time, the shooting was interrupted several times only to stop for good in September of the same year. It only resumed after the war, in the spring of 1945, but with Mario Costa as the director instead of Lattuada. It was eventually released in September 1945 with only Lattuada billed as the director. Similarly, the film was started with Vittorio Gassman in the role of Brunello, but when the shooting resumed in 1945 he was replaced by Leonardo Cortese
A nineteenth-century Italian noblewoman, imprisoned in a foreboding lakeside palazzo by her uncle, comes to believe she's possessed by a long ago mistress of the manor.
Renzo and Lucia's love story is jeopardized by Don Rodrigo, a wicked nobleman, who is interested in Lucia. When she refuses his attentions he has her kidnapped and brought to a convent whose prioress is a nun as wicked as he is. The two youths will have to go through a lot of misfortunes before being reunited and being able to marry.
Franco, a young man of noble descent, marries Luisa, daughter of a humble clerk, against his grandmother's will.
Guido Renzi and his lawyer friend chase a beautiful girl to return a purse that he lost and after a long drive in the car reach the laboratory of an improvised astrophysicist - the girl's father - who, together with another scientist, is about to take off in the direction of Mars aboard a missile.