Five young men dream of success as they drift lazily through life in a small Italian village. Fausto, the group's leader, is a womanizer; Riccardo craves fame; Alberto is a hopeless dreamer; Moraldo fantasizes about life in the city; and Leopoldo is an aspiring playwright. As Fausto chases a string of women, to the horror of his pregnant wife, the other four blunder their way from one uneventful experience to the next.
A Parisian painter working in the Basque country succeeds in keeping together a young woman and her smuggler boyfriend, even though the artist has feelings for the intended bride himself, and then he completes a painting on the subject of the wedding.
In a small provincial town, the new colonel of the dragoon regiment consigns all his men. Three soldiers defy orders and jump the wall. But the colonel becomes indulgent thanks to the intervention of the general who did not remain insensitive to the charm of a young American.
