Marta is married to Giancarlo, an unemployed surveyor, and is the mother of a child with Down syndrome. Hers is a difficult life, made up of sacrifices and disappointments: she tries in every way not to lose heart, even if, having become pregnant for the second time, she will seriously consider having an abortion.

Roberta is used to long periods of loneliness. She has long been in a relationship with Luca, the former director of the boutique. However, when the latter, sick and about to undergo an operation, decides to return to his wife, Roberta tries to be close to him anyway and in doing so she meets Marco, a young surgeon.

Fiorenza is a single young woman, extremely clumsy and insecure. She lives, dissatisfied, still with her parents, and the monotony of a life all home and work only increases her constant nervousness. With the help of her colleagues she will try to change, starting with her relationship with men.

Paola is ambitious and indefatigable: she studies law and to round off, in addition to working as a clerk, she is a baby-sitter, an actress and a cubist. After an evening at the disco she is raped: she will be able to overcome the trauma thanks to Fiorenza's friendship and the love of Riccardo, whom she met in the store.

Romeo is homosexual and lives his love affair with the pastry chef Antonio without complexes. However, the years go by and the desire to become a father is always stronger: so, when he finds an abandoned little girl in a dumpster, he does everything to keep her with him, even if in the end he will decide to let her go back with her mother.

Francesca, the director of the boutique, is an iron woman, but she too hides a terrible pain: her son is a drug addict. In a particularly difficult time, in an attempt to remedy her son's problems, she finds an old flame of his, with whom she re-enters a relationship.