Chapter I: In Vespa (On My Vespa)

Putting the hot Roman summer to good use, Nanni Moretti dedicates himself to his favorite hobby, riding his Vespa through the streets of the half-deserted city.

Here, Moretti lets the landscape inspire his thoughts: he laments the banalization of politics in contemporary Italian cinema, comments on the gentrification of the quarters of Rome, mocks the overzealous critical reception of movies like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, and confesses his love for dance caused by the movie Flashdance – later meeting its star Jennifer Beals. Finally, he visits the place in Ostia where Pier Paolo Pasolini was killed, to pay his respects.

Chapter II: Isole (Islands)

Having to work on an idea for a new movie, Moretti decides to leave Rome for a while for the more peaceful Aeolian Islands. In Lipari he's the guest of his friend Gerardo, an austere scholar who moved there eleven years earlier to better study James Joyce's Ulysses without being distracted by modern commodities such as television, which he despises. However, both are unable to find the tranquility they're searching for since the number of tourists has suddenly increased.

They move to Salina, where they are guests of two couples friends of Gerardo, both incapable of managing their hyperactive children, a feature that seems rampant on the entire island. Meanwhile, Gerardo begins watching television and gradually becomes completely addicted to it, and especially to soap operas. They move again, this time to Stromboli, where they are constantly bothered by a megalomaniac mayor who tries to involve them in the oddest projects.

They finally move to Alicudi, frugal and isolated, lacking water and electricity. Here Moretti seems to have found the right place to focus on his project, but soon Gerardo runs away in despair to catch the last ferry, unable to live without his favorite soap operas, while disavowing his ideals and proclaiming undying love for cheap entertainment.

Chapter III: Medici (Doctors)

Moretti clarifies to the audience that the following chapter will be based on a true story happened to him some years earlier; one day, he begins to suffer from persistent itching and insomnia. He visits many doctors and specialists, but they all dismiss him with different diagnosis, prescribing a lot of costly drugs and prohibiting him to eat most of his favorite food. Seeing no improvements, Moretti unsuccessfully tries alternative cures like reflexology and acupuncture.

After almost a year, a doctor notices his developing cough during a visit and suggests him an X-ray. That reveals a mass on his lung, which after a biopsy is discovered to be a still-curable Hodgkin's lymphoma. Moretti successfully goes through chemotherapy and has the lymphoma cured. Sometime later, he reads the definition of Hodgkin's lymphoma in a basic medical encyclopedia, finding out that its most common symptoms are exactly itching and insomnia. Surrounded by the dozens of useless drugs he bought, Moretti laments the incapability of most doctors of listening to their patients, before making a bitter toast "to health" with a glass of water.