Ruggero, a meek young man, impulsively robs a bank to prove to his ex-wife that he is courageous and masculine. A police investigation engulfs everyone except our unassuming hero who is completely ignored. Through a set of hilarious coincidences, he gets away with the robbery, while corrupt bank officials take the fall for what looks like an inside job.

After his wife dies, middle-aged businessman Philip Emmenthal, at the prompting of his playboy son Storey, populates his Geneva villa with eight-and-a-half concubines. Three are from Kyoto, where Storey manages Pachinco palaces. Each has a distinctive personality: a nun, a child bearer, a gambler, a student of Kabuki, a horsewoman with a pet pig, a maid. As a year passes, the women begin asserting their own power.

A woman struggles to interact with her family and find her place in society after spending fifteen years in prison.