During the British retreat through Libya, a British officer takes shelter with a group of Arab Bedouin. He marries the chief's daughter. Sometime later, his younger brother, who had believed him to be dead, is informed that he may be alive in Libya - prompting him to set out and search for him.
It's no holds barred for Julian in pursuit of upward mobility. Although expected to channel career aspirations into the Church of the post-Napoleonic era, his intensely romantic liaisons propel him forward at a pace he cannot control.
It's the last year of highschool of a group of teenagers, and now they have to face their final exam, and the loves, happy or not, that sprung during those years of school.
Northern Italian Stefano marries sweetheart Maria by proxy while working abroad in Canada. However, she is mistakenly accused of her sister's crime of abandoning her own child and, when Stefano finds out, he decides to call off their marriage.
Young Rosalia marries the painter Corrado Palmieri, but gets disowned by her family, opposed to the marriage. Then during a fight, Corrado kills his brother in law and is sentenced to a life sentence.