Madrid, Spain, 1949. The Circo Americano arrives in the city. While the big top is pitched in a vacant lot, the troupe parades through the grand avenues: the band, a witty impersonator, the Balodys, acrobats, jugglers, acrobatic skaters, clowns and… Buffallo Bill.
In Milan, the beggar Carlone has formed a brotherhood. Carlone's sister Anna, is a poor blind girl. One day Carlone saves a mutilated, who tried to end his days.
Lilli Marlene, a French girl working as a bar maid in her uncle's café in Benghazi, Libya, turns out to be the girl that the popular German wartime song Lili Marleen had been written for before the war, so both the British and the Germans try to use her for propaganda purposes - especially as it turns out that she can sing as well.
A young rogue kills an old lady to rob her. Arrested, he believes it is for this crime, hides nothing from his lawyer, who soon tells him that he is only accused of another theft prior to his crime.