Spike Fumo is an Italian kid apsiring to be a boxer. He falls in love with a rich girl, who turns out to be the daughter of a Mafia boss. Spike is threatened to leave Bensonhurst by the mob, and then goes to a poverty-stricken Puerto Rican part of Brooklyn.
Claire Gregory, an upper class New York personality, witnesses a murder in a luxurious nightclub. Detective Mike Keegan, recently promoted, is assigned to protect her.
A humanoid alien lands on earth, and soon discovers he likes to eat Italian. Italian people, that is. Incompetent detective McSorely is the only one with a clue about what's going on, and even his grasp of the situation isn't too firm. The rest of the police force thinks he's crazy, while the alien continues sampling the Italian cuisine of New York City.
Natalie allows her classmate Jeff, who ran away from home after a fight with his stepfather, to stay at her place while her father is away on a business trip. Natalie soon starts dating Jeff's friend James Casey, who isn't as faithful as she thinks, while her best friend Polly falls in love with baseball player Zoo Knudsen.
New York urologist Harold Lear gets a taste of his own medicine when he suffers a heart attack and is confronted with a medical institution which doesn't seem equipped to help. Wife Martha steps in to fight the system and get a measure of service and compassion. Ultimately the greatest battle is not waged against the medical profession, however, but against Lear's own failing body and his own mortal fears.
