The film consists of four stories plus epilogue set in 19th-century Sicily. THE OTHER SON - A mother spends her life waiting for news from her two sons (emigrated to America) while ignoring her third because he is the reincarnation of the bandit who raped her. MOON SICKNESS - a newly-wed peasant girl discovers that her husband goes mad every full moon. She arranges for a male friend to protect her but they end up in bed together just as the moon emerges from behind a cloud. THE JAR - a rich landowner hires a master craftsman to repair a giant olive jar but the craftsman gets trapped inside. REQUIEM - villagers band together in an attempt to force their landlord to let them bury their dead. CONVERSATIONS WITH MOTHER - the writer Luigi Pirandello talks with his aged mother about a story he always wanted to write but which he never managed to capture in words.