Based on the namesake book, the movie follows Peppino, an old hit man in a '70 Naples, forced to come back in action by the murder of his son. This tragic event also arises reflections on life and on the society in all the characters.
After saving Arturo, a young scion of the industrial middle class, from a beating, the sailor Martin Eden is invited to the boy's family home. Here he meets Elena, Arturo's beautiful sister, and falls in love with her at first sight. The cultured and refined young woman becomes not only the object of Martin's affections but also a symbol of the social status he aspires to achieve. At the cost of enormous efforts and overcoming the obstacles represented by his humble origin, Martin pursues the dream of becoming a writer. Under the influence of the elderly intellectual Russ Brissenden, he gets involved in socialist circles, bringing him into conflict with Elena and her bourgeois world.
A dramatic and tense love story set in the picturesque Italian town of Ascoli Piceno where wounded World War One veteran Luciano observes the world through the windows of his elegant restaurant and believes that he can live life according to his own rules despite the encroaching darkness of Mussolini's fascism. Set in 1938, two years before Italy entered World War Two, the tension builds as one by one individual freedoms are restricted. When Anna arrives in the town and begs for employment, it becomes clear that there is more to her story than she has admitted. As they become emotionally involved and the political situation worsens Luciano finds himself in an impossible situation.
A group of archaeologists and the black market of historical artifacts.