Set during the second world war, the sentimental education of a sensual adolescent girl, growing out of her childhood in a small, impoverished village in Southern Italy.
Francesco is an entrepreneur in the building industry. His company is near to collapse if it doesn't win a deal to build a new school complex. It needs at least 60 million liras to participate to the deal, but all the banks refuse to lend the money. A corrupt bank employee introduces him to Claudio, apparently an assistant of Sergio, Francesco's old school friend. Sergio is an accountant available to lend Francesco the money he needs. Francesco wins the deal, but soon he discovers that Claudio is not what he says.
A struggling musician living in New York starts working at an Italian restaurant and falls in love with two women.