该剧讲述了贝尼托·墨索里尼的早期职业生涯：从1919年创建意大利法西斯组织到1924年暗杀政治家贾科莫·马特奥蒂。

在第二次世界大战尾声，一群由反抗义士组成的杂牌军筹划了一场异想天开的劫案：潜入米兰的法西斯总部，洗劫墨索里尼的珍宝。

根据导演Franco Zeffirelli本人的早年个人经历改编，讲述二战期间，一群热爱意大利文化艺术的女性在佛罗伦萨和圣吉米尼亚诺的经历，其中包括和墨索里尼喝茶的前英国大使夫人(Maggie Smith饰)、帮雇主照顾私生子卢卡的玛丽(Joan Plowright饰)、艺术热爱者阿拉贝拉(Judi Dench饰)、年轻英国记者康妮(Tessa Pritchard饰)、干练的美国女性乔琪(Lily Tomlin饰)、放浪但好心的美国女性埃尔莎(Cher饰)。战争爆发前，她们常常聚在前大使夫人处，或是在乌菲齐美术馆里喝茶聊天，二战爆发后，她们都被软禁在了古城圣吉米尼亚诺，被她们照顾过的卢卡已经长大，时常前来帮助她们。

二战期间，一群不同文化背景的妇女每天都要到英国驻意大利使馆同大使夫人喝茶，本片讲的就是她们的故事。

1919年，墨索里尼被意大利社会党开除后成立了法西斯党，并迫国王交出权力，墨索里尼成为了意大利集大权于一身的领袖。他的女儿埃达也长成了大姑娘。女儿的个人感情与政治或者是与国家的命运相联系的时候，那就由不得自己了。墨索里尼的女儿与丈夫的爱情成了墨索里尼利益的牺牲品。

二战臭名昭著的意大利纳粹大魔头墨索里尼的传记片，讲述墨索里尼死前四天的故事。

The story starts at the point in Benito Mussolini's life when, at the age of nineteen, he gave up being a schoolmaster, left his home town of Forli and, as a guest worker on a building-site in Lausanne, Switzerland, underwent his own personal experience of the darker sides of the capitalist system. The speed with which the rhetorically gifted demagogue manages to assemble whole crowds of friends and followers around him - including above all his "protectress", the enigmatic Russian woman Angelika - is reflected in the speed at which he succeeds in attracting enemies from church and state. His love for the beautiful Eleonora, the daughter of a middle-class family, studying medicine at the University of Geneva - a city where Mussolini himself has been carrying stone around as an unskilled worker - even convinces him to take up studying. When a fatal accident occurs on the building-site - a worker plunges to his death from a badly-secured section of scaffolding - the young student Mussolini calls for a general strike. Arrest and expulsion are the consequences of this first piece of agitation, and it is only the intervention of his influential friend Angelika which saves him from being thrown into jail. But Mussolini is not a man to give up easily. Soon he's successful again, in Trieste, working as editor of the socialist newspaper "L'Avventure del Lavoratore", and a conflict soon arises between himself and the local clergy. This, however, provides the local imperial Austrian authorities with the excuse they need to expel this troublemaker and agitator from the country. Back in his native town of Forlì, Mussolini marries Rachele, his childhood sweetheart. But he's still a long way from settling down into a "bourgeois" lifestyle - he spends far more time with his comrades, and especially the pretty female comrades, than with Rachele and the family. It's not long before Mussolini becomes local chief of the Italian Socialist Party, in which he reveals his secure instinct for power and his talent for intrigue as he plays off various sections of the left against each other. Very soon he's levered his arch-rival Bissolati out of office: in Milan Mussolini becomes editor-in-chief of the country's largest socialist newspaper, "Avanti!". Mussolini exploited the escalation in violence among the country's workers for his own ends. The "reds" - the left-wing Socialists - and the "yellows" - the Republicans - were involved in a bitter war with each other. At the peak of this crisis, however, World War I broke out. While the Italian Nationalists are urging the country to take part in the war, the left wing builds its support on the pacifist strength of the "Socialist International": the workers of Europe must unite against the imperialist warmongers! Now that those in power represent a common enemy, Mussolini - via an adroit move - succeeds in uniting the warring left-wing factions. Although hopes that a united European left will be able to stop the war are soon dashed, Mussolini is now more powerful than ever before. It is at this period of his life that he begins to have growing doubts about neutrality and pacifism being worthy aims for a true revolutionary. Gradually he turns all his allies, even the staunchest ones, into enemies, including his beloved Angelika, by showing a lot of sympathy towards the landowning classes. The last great chapter in the history of Mussolini the socialist is now played out against the backdrop of World War I, and the transformation begins which will eventually lead him to found an entirely different type of socialism altogether - Fascismo. While the pacifists in his party are pressing for neutrality, Mussolini finally allows himself to be "bought" by the Conservative government. The former anti-war campaigner turned opportunist now supports the war. Now he's on his own - and at the turning-point of his political career...

影片讲述1922年至1943年任意大利首相，独裁者，法西斯主义的创始人墨索里尼的一生。本片运用真实的史料，全面地解读与揭示了墨索里尼在二战中扮演了什么样的角色？他与希特勒，斯大林，丘吉尔，罗斯福之间存在着怎样的私人关系？是谁救了罗马教皇使之免遭德军俘虏？墨索里尼是被谁处决的？这个独裁者私人生活情况如何？

意大利著名导演皮埃尔-保罗-帕索里尼(曾拍摄《索多玛120天》)的死亡，一直是一个未解之谜。官方说法是帕索里尼死于两个同性恋间的斗殴，也有说他是被一个…

影片改编自弗朗西斯卡·卡布里尼（克里斯蒂安娜·德朗娜 Cristiana Dell'Anna 饰）争取平等与幸福的真实故事。18世纪末，意大利修女卡布里尼到了纽约后，发现当地的外来族裔受尽政府逼迫、教会漠视和社会偏见之苦。卡布里尼因此决定投身帮助这些弱势族裔，誓言要让所有人充满希望。 　　卡布里尼不仅与当地政府、修会对抗，还要应对社会上层阶级的歧视。面对种种艰巨的挑战，她从不气馁，并以勇气与坚韧一次又一次地战胜困难，改变世界。