A mother and daughter join the community of passengers on a ship to Naples. Scorning and delighting in one another’s peculiarities, vying for transient social status and partnerships, the colorful group awaits the varied promises of their destination.

A man is tasked with finding his childhood friend who died years ago, but whose consciousness or "guardian angel" lives on in other bodies.

An Italian poet visits her friend in Madagascar, where they attempt to help the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy Italian.

When a middle-aged Italian maid works for an American professor, the maid's personal problems and dishonestly interfere with her work and the generosity the professor has given her.

An enforcer for the mob moves to California and ends up working for a different mob at a horse race, where he befriends an old Italian man who has a magical way with horses. Trouble comes when the enforcer is asked to "take care" of a kid with the same last name as the Italian man...