The quaint life of Ottavia, a widow living in Rome, is turned upside down when a young and pretty Japanese girl knocks at her door, claiming to be the daughter of her late husband, an Italian military officer who went to Japan on a secret mission during WWII and reportedly killed in action there.
Luis de Monterey is a ship captain who is pitted against a crafty pirates.
Stefano, a singer struggling for success, falls for Maria who, however, is pregnant with a child from another guy. Stefano leaves her but when he becomes a star, he looks for her and marries her.
Maria, is a girl raised by the loving care of a poor couple but without knowing anything about her real parents. She is in love with Giorgio, a boy from a good family, who however has also aroused the interest of the intriguing Edvige who frequents bad company including jealous Roberto.
A humble clerk is forced to take on debts to cure his mother.
Henri is a music composer, but after a love affair gone wrong, he decides to leave civilization, and isolate himself deep in the valley of the Amazon river. Moana is a girl who finds him attractive, and informs him about the tribe's treasure. Eventually, his heart balances between a new love or getting hugely rich.
Agnese has many men who woo her and live with her cousin Cesira, who has the opposite problem with men and wishes she would also have men woo her.
An Italian government agent is assigned to break up a drug smuggling ring on the island of Ischia but his daughter is kidnapped by the gang.
In the movie La valigia dei sogni (The Suitcase of Dreams, Italy, 1953) directed by Luigi Comencini, some sequences from Cenere are inserted. The protagonist is a former silent film actor who has saved old movies of his time from destruction, and uses them to set up recreational performances at schools. After an accidental fire and the risk of prison, he meets a rich producer who helps him to build a film museum.
The story of a woman who marries the brother of a guardian who was killed by her brother.
Garibaldi, after landing in Marsala, moves on to Naples. The liberals are overjoyed but the Bourbons are terrified. The so-called Baron Tucci, on a recommendation from England, arrives at the home of Count Sereni, a notable liberal. But he turns out not to be a patriot who has returned to Italy to take part in the fight but a degraded Bourbon official who has been promised rehabilitation if he can succeed as a spy. Tucci discovers old Sereni's second wife is one of his former lovers and persuades her to murder her husband so as to gain his inheritance. She does indeed cause the count to die, by withholding his heart medicine, but not before he destroys his will.
Vittorio De Sica is a teacher struggling to take care of his family and always dreaming that Parliament will increase the salaries for teachers and life will become easier for his wife, Maria Mereander, and kids. An Indian prince (Sabu) visits Italy, is assisted by the teacher and gives De Sica a baby elephant as a reward. This upsets the landlord, Nando Bruno, the other tenants, and the neighborhood. He takes the elephant away but, like Lassie, it comes home.