In this romance, a middle-aged playboy finds himself running his father's fur business after his father's death. He continues to allow his papa's mistress to run the business. The playboy's fiancee gets pregnant and he refuses to marry her. She dumps him in favor of his best friend. Soon the selfish man finds himself deserted by all his friends. He winds up involved with his father's patiently waiting lover.
Guido Anselmi, a film director, finds himself creatively barren at the peak of his career. Urged by his doctors to rest, Anselmi heads for a luxurious resort, but a sorry group gathers—his producer, staff, actors, wife, mistress, and relatives—each one begging him to get on with the show. In retreat from their dependency, he fantasizes about past women and dreams of his childhood.
Anna flees her home, where she has been victimized for years by her spineless father’s mean-spirited second wife, to be with her lover, an honest businessman yet to make his fortune. When he is accused of a murder he didn’t commit, the couple’s domestic tranquillity is upended, and a desperate Anna must rely on her cruel stepmother to help support their child.
Alberto, son of a rich engineer, falls in love with Luisa, a ruthless manicurist who is only after his money. His parents offer him a holiday in Venice because they hope he will forget her. Alberto however leaves for Venice with Luisa, who has asked a friend of hers to take her place at the beauty parlour. Alberto's parents go there and mistake Teresa for Luisa. A series of misunderstandings ensues...
A family man travelling for work, Paolo Bianchi, meets on a train a lonely girl, Maria. He sees her again on a bus and she reveals him that she's in troubles: she's pregnant, her baby's father has left her and she doesn't know how to tell to her parents that she's not married. She asks Paolo to play the role of her husband and he accepts....
A singer saves a heavy alcoholic journalist. Fate has a new meeting for them: the two are found in a police station where she was brought with the accusation of prostitution.
A comedy of errors where floundering pediatrician Pietro takes a job as an orphanage health inspector to pay for the debts of his high-spending girlfriend Loletta, only to end up mistakenly engaged with Lilli, the daughter of a wealthy businessman, and pursued by lovestruck 18-year-old orphan Teresa Venerdì.
During the Spanish occupation of Naples, the people led by Tommaso Aniello - known as "Masaniello" - plot against the Viceroy. The Viceroy's son, under another name, has a son from Masaniello's sister, but his father has already planned a marriage for him with a Spanish patrician against his wishes.
The young and poor Pietro Haguet accepts a job offer from the rich Marion, who wants to free herself from the suffocating presence of so many suitors, evidently interested only in her assets. Pietro's job therefore consists in posing as her boyfriend. Then things change and the two fake boyfriends discover that they are really in love with each other.
Florence in 1848. There is a strong political tension in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Giovanni, a young Neapolitan composer who has just arrived in the city, accidentally comes into contact with some liberals and is convinced to compose the hymn of the Volunteers.