Divided into three episodes and based on current events, the film was a nightmare for Antonioni, what with the producers on the one hand and the censors, who did everything they could to destroy his original concept. The French episode tells the story of two brothers who plan to murder a friend to steal money. But they that find that not only was the money counterfeit, but the friend had time to expose their misdeeds before he died. The Italian story, with Franco Interlenghi and Anna Maria Ferrero, tells of a rich young man who takes to cigarette smuggling in order to indulge in an even more luxurious lifestyle. But one night he kills a police officer and is seriously injured. The next day he dies. The Englishman slain in the Italian version would have justice in another collective film, Il fiore e la violenza. A compulsive liar phones a newspaper to say he has found the body of a woman, and he wants an article to be published. Then, in order to have another article written about him, he confesses to the murder, convinced that he cannot be convicted because of lack of evidence. However, proof is found and he is sentenced to death.
