Mario and Maria Boschi, a 30-year-old couple with small children, are hit by a crisis: husband and wife cannot agree on a party name. A colleague, also named Mario, makes an impressive speech, and Maria find herself increasingly attracted to him. She feels able to relate to him like she could to her husband in the old days. They spend the night together, and she falls ill. When she is asked by her husband to leave the house, she realizes that there may be a difference between real love and a vague need for understanding.

An evening at an Italian restaurant. Hosted by tolerant and relaxed Flora, various parties of middle-class people come in -- large and small, young and old, regulars and tourists, married and single -- to dine, converse, argue, celebrate, make confessions; to overhear other people's discussions, to interrupt them, to sing, listen to music, and enjoy life.

A father and his son who lived seperated for some time meet each other one day and try to talk their problems over and understand their diametrical differences.