| Director | Pier Paolo Pasolini |
|---|
Prologue: The film, shot in Neapolitan dialect at the behest of the director, offers a variety of episodes from the stories in Giovanni Boccaccio's book, and are linked through a pupil of the painter Giotto (played by Pasolini himself) who arrives in Naples to paint a mural.
The credits roll while the song-play Zesa Viola o La Zita in cerca di un marito is played over top. The Neapolitan ballad is about a maid searching for a husband. The film begins with Ser Ciappelletto (who returns later in the film) committing a murder and hiding a dead body. The scene then transitions to the story of Andreuccio.
Andreuccio of Perugia: In the first episode (based on Second day, fifth tale), Andreuccio of Perugia has come to Naples to buy horses. A rich lady learns of this from one of her older servants and devises a trick to con him of his money. She invites him over to her home for supper under the pretext that they are long lost siblings. After supper they both retire to bed and Andreuccio gets into his nightshirt and puts his clothes and money on the bed. He then goes to use the restroom where he falls through a trap door and is dropped into a trough of excrement. The young man escapes and meets two thieves who are attempting a robbery at a nearby church to steal the jewels from the tomb of the Archbishop who died a few days earlier. Andreuccio is persuaded to participate and enters the tomb to steal the jewels. He finds the bishop's prized ring and keeps it for himself. He tells the others he couldn't find it and they know he is lying. They shut the door on him enclosing him in certain death. He screams out to no avail. Later, another group of robbers enter with the exact same plan of stealing the jewels from the tomb. Andreuccio hears this and lays in wait. The lead robber asks the other two to enter the tomb but they refuse. He calls them chicken and mocks them for being afraid. He tells them "dead men don't bite" when hearing this, Andreuccio pops up and bites the robber's leg. The three robbers run away in terror while Andreuccio jumps up out of the tomb afterward and prances away with his new ring.
Ciappelletto, the Thief: In Naples, an old man is reading to an interested crowd a bawdy story (based on Ninth day, second tale) in Neapolitan. In a convent, a nun is having a sexual affair with a male visitor. When the other nuns discover this they rush to snitch on her to the Mother Superior. The Mother Superior who was having sex with a priest is awakened by knocking on her door in the middle of the night and quickly gets dressed. She accidentally puts his underpants on her head mistaking it for her veil and rushes out of the door. The Mother Superior begins scolding the nun but she points out the underpants and the nuns all realize the Mother Superior is guilty of the same sin. From that day forth, the nuns all get lovers.
While this story is being told, Ser Ciappelletto is picking pockets of men caught up in the story. He gives some money to a male child in exchange for sexual intercourse and the scene ends.
Masetto da Lamporecchio: In the second episode (based on Third day, First tale), a young man, Masetto da Lamporecchio, is encouraged by a gardener to seek work at a local convent filled with many beautiful women. The young man gets the idea to pretended to be deaf and dumb to get inside as the abbess doesn't want handsome young men in the convent but will make an exception for a deaf mute who she sees as non-threatening. He gets the job and while tending the garden two nuns decide to use him for sex because he cannot rat on them. The other sisters watch this and get the idea to join in. The sisters prove insatiable, and the young man finally breaks his silence to protest to the abbess that he cannot keep up with their demands. The abbess declares his sudden ability to speak a miracle from God, but this is merely an excuse to keep the young man at the convent.
Peronella: In the third episode (based on Seventh day, second tale), the commoner Peronella makes a cuckold of her dimwitted husband Giannello. While she is having sex with her lover, Giannello unexpectedly comes home. Hearing the husband knocking, the other man hides in a large pot. Peronella opens the door and yells at Giannello for coming home so early from work. Giannello explains that it is the feast day of San Galeone so there was no work to be had. Instead he found a new buyer for the large pot they own (in which the lover is hiding still unbeknown to Giannello). Peronella devises a scheme to explain her lover in the pot and tells Giannello that she already has a buyer and that he is inspecting the pot. She tells him she sold it for seven denarii which is more than Giannello had sold it to his buyer. The husband accepts this and tells his buyer to leave as the pot is already sold. Giannello goes to the pot room where the hidden lover pops out and yells at him that the inside of the pot is dirty. The wife tells the husband to clean it before selling it. Giannello enters the pot and while he is inside the pot, his wife and her lover loudly and passionately have intercourse next to it. The wife points around at different spots of the jar and tells her husband to scrape them all good until he finds the "right spot". Her orders to clean the jar are the same as the directions for her lover to penetrate her. The husband however remains oblivious to this and laughs to himself.
Ser Ciappelletto of Prato: In the fourth episode (based on First day, first tale), which begins in Prato, Ser Ciappelletto, a Neapolitan merchant, is sent to make a deal in Germany by his employer. For most of his life, he had devoted his soul to sin, seduction and profit, disregarding all moral and ethical values. He has committed blasphemy, forgery, murder, and rape, and he is a homosexual. His employer wishes to send him to Germany where nobody knows of his vile ways. There he will meet up with two fellow Neapolitans who are usurers.