The study of semantics has convinced Amedio (Jean Rochefort) that things only have relative validity, and that everything is changeable. So it seems, because while on an Italian holiday with his family, he conceives the idea that his aging wife (Marie-Christine Barrault) should assume the role of his mother, and his daughter (Jacqueline Lustig), who has an infant son, should assume the role of his wife and lover. His real mother (Lila Kedrova), an elderly invalid, dies just as this conceit begins to take form, and, inexplicably, the women placidly go along with this odd notion for a time, but eventually return to their former roles.
Roy
Mario, a tram-driver, and Silvio, a banker, make friends in the group of participants in a survival training course.
Valerio
A young Italian stops at a filling station on the freeway, and having some time to kill, telephones a friend. He recounts his adventures as a gigolo, but in doing so as a sudden awareness causes him to reconsider certain values that had escaped him, bringing him face-to-face with himself.
