Donatella is a simple and honest roman girl, daughter of a bookbinder and girlfriend of Guido, a gas station owner. One day she finds a woman's handbag containing valuables and documents, and decides to return it to her owner, a wealthy American lady, who offers Donatella a job as a secretary as a reward: she has to manage the lady's villa during her absences. There, Donatella casually meets Maurizio, a rich, elegant and well-educated young man, and ends up falling in love.
Now that the world conflict is over, five inseparable wartime buddies swear eternal friendship now to each other. But there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip. Jean becomes a postman, Marcel a boxer, Roger an actor, André a student and Philippe remains what he has always been, a young man of good social standing. Roger, who can't find any role, is introduced through his singer sister Valérie, to Frédo, a shady nightclub owner.Roger soon becomes one of Frédo's henchmen. To make matters worse, he swipes Jean's fiancée, Simone. Marcel, who loses fight after fight, ends up joining Fredo's gang as well. André, who wanted to redeem the faults of his father during the Occupation, gets killed in the Indochina war. Marcel is shot down while taking part in a robbery. In her turn, Valérie is bumped off by an accomplice of Fredo and Roger is sent to jail.
Cesare, from Rome, and Mimì, from Naples, don't agree with their children marriage, so the young couple runs away from their home.
A comedy with lots of Neapolitan songs and shots of the Bay of Naples finds Maria Morelli unable to marry her singing sailor/lover, Giacomo because her father, Don Salvatdore Morelli objects. She can't elope because her father has an heart ailment and uses it to hold Maria. Giacomo misunderstands and takes off on a global singing tour.
Returning from his honeymoon, Marcella finds out she is pregnant. The to-be grandparents fight on where the baby will be born and on his name. The parents of the baby, tired of those fights, run away to Milan.
Two girls (a secretary and a musician) disguise themselves as men in order to work for a famous bald actor.
A country boy moves to the city to attempt a singing career and gets seduced by a soubrette.
A man discovers his wife's infidelity and kills her lover.
