Giorgio, Walter and Dario's dream is to own a boat. Meanwhile, they overcome boredom by inventing an endless series of jokes. Between the three and the rich boys in the area led by Fernando there is a strong rivalry that will become more acute with the arrival of the beautiful Karin, a young German with an ambiguous past.

In 1867, with Garibaldi's forces close to bringing Rome into the Italian kingdom, Monsignor Colombo da Priverno, a world-weary judge on the papal court, wants to resign, disgusted by the violence to which the papacy resorts to hold secular power.

A mature lady approaches a young actor and offers him a great amount of money to get acquainted with her lonely daughter, who suffers of an incurable illness. Eventually a true romance emerges, as mother has secret feelings for the man, while he truly falls in love with the daughter. After the expected death of the daughter, the man leaves in grief rejecting the money, and the mature woman stays in deep loneliness, trying to cope with a double loss.