Gianni, Antonio and Nicola are resistance fighters during the war. After it, they return to their lives. Antonio becomes a nurse in a Roman hospital and falls in love with a girl named Luciana. Gianni becomes an assistant in a law firm, the head of which, La Rosa, is running as a deputy candidate for the Socialist Party. Nicola returns to teaching in a small town high school, marries someone named Gabriella and has a child, Tommasino.
Three years after the war, Antonio is with Luciana at a restaurant when Gianni happens to pass by. Thrilled, Antonio starts talking about their days in the resistance. Unbeknownst to him, Luciana and Gianni fall in love with each other.
One night, Gianni and Luciana visit Antonio at the hospital to admit their affair. When the new couple leaves, Antonio runs after them and kicks Gianni.
Meanwhile, Nicola loses his teaching job after a violent argument with his superior about a movie.[lower-alpha 1] Gabriella asks him to apologize to get rehired, to no avail. He leaves her and Tomamasino and goes to Rome with a case of books to find Antonio.
Gianni and Luciana live happily and start to have family projects. Gianni gets a promotion, working for the firm as a lawyer. He is asked to defend in court a real estate constructor who had two of his employees die on a site for not respecting security measures. Gianni refuses, lying about the refusal being due to the problems of La Rosa, now a deputy, who is accused of political and financial misconducts. While they are talking, Elide, the client's youngest daughter arrives and falls in love with Gianni. The client later tries to bribe him into taking the case. Gianni neither accepts nor refuses. Meanwhile, Nicola tries to work in Rome as a movie critic and attempts to start a film magazine, but fails everywhere.
Years later, Antonio and Nicola have lunch at their usual restaurant when Luciana enters. Nicola insists on being introduced. They start talking and Luciana asks about Gianni, whom she has not seen in a long time.
That night, the three are drunk. While Nicola tries to make Luciana laugh, Antonio sits alone. He cannot stand Nicola and argues with Luciana. She says that she can do whatever she pleases, even becoming an actress. Antonio leaves, pissed, while she hides in a photo-booth. Nicola tries to calm Antonio down. He fails and returns to Luciana who has left the photo-booth, having had cried there.
Gianni receives a letter from Nicola saying that Luciana has tried to commit suicide. He visits her.
Luciana has tried a career on stage but has failed. She lives in a hotel room with other artists. Antonio is there, nursing her. When Nicola arrives, she asks him if Antonio knows about "them". Nicola slaps her. She says that their two night story is over and apologizes to Antonio, who starts a fight, saying that he took advantage of her.
When Luciana feels better, they all leave the hotel. She takes a bus, and the two men go their separate ways. Gianni secretly watches this, unable to find the courage to confront his old friends.
Years later, Gianni has married Elide and is now a rich lawyer with two children, Fabrizio and Donatella. They are partying for his client's 69th birthday. Elide mentions how happy she is to be married with Gianni and that other life she would have had, if he had married another woman. This makes Gianni remember Luciana.
While having dinner, Gianni and Elide see Nicola on TV in a quiz show about Italian cinema. Nicola answers all the questions right and wins a lot of money and the right to return the following week for more. He calls his wife, with whom he is reconciled. She advises that he takes the money without risking it at the next show. However, his objective is not the money. He wants his book "Cinema as a school" be published, which an editor promised to do if he won the show's grand prize.
The next show begins. Nicola plays double or nothing, risking to lose all he has won. He is asked a question about Vittorio de Sica. His answer is eventually deemed wrong by the jury. He complains and ends up expelled from the show, losing the money.
Antonio is still working in the hospital. One night, he is in an ambulance blocked by the shooting of a film.[lower-alpha 2] There, he sees an actress, Luciana.
The ex-lovers sit down and talk. Antonio notices that she has become an alcoholic. He invites her for dinner the next evening when her impresario shows up and says that she will be busy. Antonio starts a fight. She asks not to see him again.
A decade later, Gianni is a businessman and quarrels with his father-in-law over a real estate project. They come to blows and the father-in-law sees he is too old and weak to stop Gianni. He gives him power to decide over the business.
Antonio is living with a girl named Valeria. The couple is strolling in a public garden when they meet Luciana, who works as an usher and lives alone with her young son Luigi. She asks about Gianni, but Antonio has no news from him. Antonio and her start to see more of each other.
Gianni has a wonderful house in the countryside and perpetually avoids Elide. One day, desperate to talk to him, she catches him as he goes to work. She confesses to have met, in her despair, another man. He believes that she invented that to upset him. Distraught, she takes her car, starts the engine and rushes to her death.
Meanwhile, Nicola is at a festival. There, De Sica tells an anecdote proving that Nicola was right in his answer in the show. A saddened Nicola refuses to go talk to De Sica, his idol, saying that he has no more to say to him.
Antonio is driving to Rome when he sees Gianni. The two talk, realizing that they have not seen each other in years. Gianni pretends to be broke. They agree on meeting with Nicola, who is now a stringer for a newspaper. Gianni does not plan to attend the meeting and returns to his empty mansion. Elide is dead, his children are gone, and only his father-in-law remains. Distraught, Gianni decides to reunite with his old friends.
The three meet in the usual restaurant. Gianni eventually says that they are a generation of bastards who did nothing to fulfill the hopes they had for a better world. They blame each other's political views and fight again, drunk in the streets. When they stop, Nicola breaks into tears of joy, revealing that Tommasino is getting married.
They all take a car and go to Antonio's wife, who turns up to be Luciana. When talking alone with Luciana, Gianni says that he always remained in love with her. Luciana says that she did not think of him one bit. Gianni leaves while Nicola realizes that he has Gianni's driving license in his pocket.
The next morning, Nicola, Antonio and Luciana visit Gianni and realize that he lied about being broke. They leave the license at the door and start arguing again.
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