埃尔内斯托和卡洛被释放，从战俘营回家。农民卡洛在回农村前，邀请埃尔内斯托到农村家中作客，并看看自己的女儿罗塞塔。埃尔内斯托回到家乡，发现自己的家毁于战火，母亲去世，妹妹玛丽亚失踪。他无家可归，成为流浪汉。一天晚上，他发现自己的妹妹已当上了妓女。他们兄妹痛苦相认。不久，妹妹在同盘剥他的坏蛋争吵时，被坏蛋杀害，埃尔内斯托愤而杀死了坏蛋。埃尔内斯托认识了丽狄亚，丽狄亚是一个盗匪集团的头子。他被迫入伙，并逐渐成为丽狄亚的情夫和盗匪集团的头子，他们劫富济贫。有一次，埃尔内斯托同丽狄亚争吵后，丽狄亚告发了他。埃尔内斯托逃脱了，他想到农村去找卡洛，买了个准备送给罗塞塔的娃娃。途中，他被警察追捕，枪战后，他被击中，临死前，仍念念不忘罗塞塔

Giovanni used to be a humble, mild-mannered government clerk whose life was turned upside down when he met Giulio, a notorious forger who at once set about manipulating the over-confident man. Giovanni did what he should never have done: he associated himself with the crook. Giulio soon laid hands on Giovanni's money, ruined his career and manhandled him into marrying his own mistress, the beautiful Ginevra. It was of course an unhappy marriage but Giovanni found a little solace when his son Ciro was born. Seven years later though, Wanzer resurfaced...

A combination of a satire on war and a comedy with war as the background. It tells of the ordinary people living on a Naples sidestreet, from 1940 to 1950 under the dominance of the Fascists, the Nazis and then the Allies occupation forces. Primary among the citizens is Gennaro Iovine (Eduard De Filippo)who has a penchant for innocently getting into trouble, and his friend Pasquale (Toto.) The latter is a rail-sweeper who becomes a professional stand-in...a corpse used to conceal contraband...serving jail time for those who don't care to spend the time to do the time...a substitute at a political rally when violence threatens the scheduled speaker