Gennarino Laganà is a poor Sicilian who struggles with menial jobs to support his family, while his parents pressure him to seek his fortune in the North. Gennarino would never leave his beloved island if he had not stumbled into a love affair with Donna Egeria, wife of the Mafia boss Don Mimì. To escape certain revenge, he boards a goods train. In a dream, Saint Totino appears to him and promises him protection in exchange for a regulated life. He thus arrives in Milan, where he meets Armida, a woman of the streets, who takes him into her home and makes him her protector and lover. But San Totino appears again to Gennarino and reproaches him for being a kept man: he must work and Armida must change her life.
Lando Buzzanca plays a man desperate to father a male heir. However, his wife (Roseanne Podesta) is apparently barren. They decide to use a surrogate mother, which, since this was in the days before artificial insemination, means Buzzanca will have to impregnate the surrogate the "old-fashioned" way. After a mishap involving a VERY unattractive but fertile widow, Buzzanca sets his sights on young girl (Gloria Guida) at an orphanage for unwed mothers (who has already given an illegitimate child up for adoption). They hire her as a maid, but she is under the impression they're going to adopt her, leading to some quasi-incestual misunderstandings...
The young Giovanni, who grew up in the provinces, arrives in Rome with the dream of becoming a famous journalist, but no newspaper is willing to hire him. Waiting for better times, the boy finds a job as a gas station attendant. One day he becomes the victim of an accident with the beautiful Giulia, who runs over him with her car. A relationship will arise between the two but Giovanni, in her naivety, has not yet understood that she works as a luxury prostitute.
In the most traditional Sicilian, a 18 year old is in full arousal. His relationship with breathtaking mature woman will create a great controversy in the retrograde Sicilian society.
Claudio Lacroics, a French-born prosecutor, is in Sicily to fight the Mafia. Every day he clashes with the beliefs of a community where the only rules are prejudice and silence. In addition, Claudio has married Lucienne and welcomes his sister Roberta into his home; she returns only to ask for money with her lover Richard.
Giovanni Percolla lives in Catania surrounded by the attentive cares of his three sisters. He permanently acts like a Don Giovanni to hide his real poor "knowledge" of women. With his friend he moves also to Rome but women still continues to remain part of his fantasies. But Giovanni succeeded to build anyway a fame of "tombeur de femmes". One day he meets the real love of Maria Antonietta and decides to marry. Will things change?