In a run-down South American town, four men are paid to drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerin into the jungle through to the oil field. Friendships are tested and rivalries develop as they embark upon the perilous journey.

Six vignettes follow the Allied invasion from July 1943 to winter 1944, from Sicily north to Venice.

A wealthy, self-absorbed Rome socialite is racked by guilt over the death of her young son. As a way of dealing with her grief and finding meaning in her life, she decides to devote her time and money to the city’s poor and sick. Her newfound, single-minded activism leads to conflicts with her husband and questions about her sanity.

An ex-American GI returns to Italy to find some money he stashed before doing a prison term. He discovers his cash is now gone and quickly sets off on a manhunt to find out who stole his buried fortune.

In Amalfi, a village on the Italian coast, an old man who seems to have strange powers gives Celestino Esposito, the local photographer, a dangerous ability.

A viceroy, a nobleman and a bullfighter court a comedy-troupe actress in 18th-century Peru.

Two twin brothers grew up and never met (due to the fact that the father with the couple would have had 13 children and therefore for superstition he closed one in an orphanage), the one goalkeeper of Juventus and the other employee at the state lottery.

During the eighteenth century the Empress of Russia sends her lover to kidnap her rival for the throne.

Newlyweds Edward & Caroline are preparing for an important evening when a quarrel over Caroline's dress sets off a series of domestic brouhahas.

A group of men calling themselves 'The Pirates of Capri", headed by Captain Sirroco, who is really Count Amalfi, are trying to restore freedom to the people of Naples. The Queen is advised of the pirate's assault of a member of her court and she seeks to escape to Palermo. But, she is advised it would be good politics for her to attend a ball Amalfi is giving for his fiancée, Mercedes, who is unaware of the dual role Amalfi is playing.

Esposito is a thief who cons tourists in Rome. Officer Bottoni manages to catch him and starts persecuting him. When Esposito manages to flee, Bottoni's superiors inform him that he'll lose his job if he can't catch Esposito.

Three men consider selling their souls to Satan in order to possess a beautiful woman.

Lyria, a faded beauty who runs a seedy waterfront bar, is madly in love with Bob, a crooked attorney. Bob can't bring himself to confess his love for Minnie, the pretty daughter of Simon, a safe cracker. In order to run away with her, Bob, one of the masterminds of a big-time robbery, betrays his friends. But Lyria, who has found out what is happening, makes Minnie fall into a deadly trap.

After fierce Roman commander Marcus Vinicius becomes infatuated with beautiful Christian hostage Lygia, he begins to question the tyrannical leadership of the despotic emperor Nero.

A taxi driver, with singing ambitions, finds an abandoned baby in his cab and begins to look for his mother. He doesn't find her but succeeds in finding two people who want to adopt the child.

Truck driver Mike Lambert is a down-and-out mining engineer searching for a job. When his rig breaks down in a small town, he happens upon a venomous seductress. When her boyfriend robs a bank, they intend to frame Lambert.