Paisan

During the Allied invasion of Sicily, an American patrol makes its way to a village at night. Only one of the Americans speaks Italian. Local girl Carmela, who wants to find the whereabouts of her brother and father, agrees to guide the patrol past a German minefield to the seaside. While one of the patrol, Joe, is assigned to keep an eye on Carmela in a castle ruin, the others inspect the area. Despite the language barrier, Joe starts to overcome Carmela's distance. When he is shot by a German sniper, Carmela hides him in the basement of the building. Upon the discovery that Joe has died, she takes his rifle and starts shooting at the enemy. When the Americans return, they find Joe's body and assume Carmela killed him. The last scene shows the dead Carmela lying at the bottom of the cliffs, having been shot by the German patrol.

The Allies invade mainland Italy and capture the port of Naples. An orphaned street urchin named Pasquale happens upon Joe, a drunk African-American soldier who is about to become the victim of a robbery. When the police arrive, Pasquale runs away with Joe, who tells him of his war experiences. After Joe falls asleep, Pasquale takes his boots. The next day, Joe, who turns out to be a military policeman, catches Pasquale stealing supplies from a truck. Joe demands his boots back, but when the boy takes him to where he lives, the sight of the squalor causes Joe to leave without them.

Francesca, a young prostitute in liberated Rome, takes Fred, a drunken American soldier, to the room where she serves her customers. He is not interested in her services and tells her of his futile search for a young woman he met and fell in love with shortly after the liberation of the city six months earlier. As he describes the woman, Francesca realises that she is the woman; both of them have changed so much in the short time that has passed that they do not recognise each other. When Fred falls asleep, Francesca slips out, asking the landlady to give Fred a piece of paper with her address on it when he awakes, and leaves. The next day, Fred finds the paper in his pocket and throws it away, telling a comrade it was a prostitute's address. While Francesca waits for him in vain, he leaves the city with his unit.

The southern half of Florence is freed, but fierce fighting continues in the other half, across the Arno river, between Italian partisans and the Germans and their fascist allies. All the bridges except the Ponte Vecchio have been blown up, stalling the Allied advance. Nurse Harriet learns that the leader of the partisans, "Lupo", is an artist whom she knew in Florence before the war. She teams up with partisan Massimo, a man desperate for news of his family, and enters the embattled city through the Vasari Corridor. After being held up by a gunfight, Massimo proceeds with his search, while Harriet takes care of a wounded partisan, from whom she hears of Lupo's recent death.

Three American military chaplains are welcomed to stay the night at a Roman Catholic monastery in the Appenine mountains West of Rimini. Captain Bill Martin, who is the only one of the chaplains who speaks Italian, acts as interpreter. The monks are dismayed to learn from Martin that only he is a Catholic; his two colleagues are a Protestant and a Jew. When the guests and their hosts sit down to supper, Martin observes that the monks have nothing on their plates. He inquires and learns that the monks have decided to fast in the hope of gaining the favour of Heaven to convert the other two to their faith. Despite the rule that meals have to be taken in silence, Martin holds a speech in which he expresses his appreciation for having found his peace again which he had believed to be lost in the tribulations of war.

In December 1944, three members of the OSS are operating behind German lines with Italian partisans in the Po delta. They rescue two downed British airmen. On their return to the Italian family who supported them, they find that these have been executed by the Germans. Later, the Allied soldiers and the partisans get involved in a gunfight and are captured by the enemy. A German officer explains to the captives his country's motives for the war, and that it will not stop before having achieved world domination. The partisans are summarily executed the next day, and the American prisoners shot when they try to interfere. The film closes with a voice-over narration (which opens each episode), stating, "This happened in the winter of 1944. By the beginning of Spring, the war was over."