The main story, from a screen play by George Oppenheimer based on a Treatment by Geza Herczeg, combines bits of Giovanni Boccaccio's own life (maybe and maybe not)with three of his most fabulous stories of love. It has Boccaccio (Louis Jourdan) following Fiametta (Joan Fontaine) to a country villa where she and five other women---The Contessa (Binnie Barnes), Pampinea (Joan Collins) and three villa girls (Mara Lane, Stella Riley, and Melissa Stribling) are hiding following the rape of their home city, Florance, Italy, by the Duke of Lorenzo. The recently-widowed Fiametta spurns overtures of love offered by the philandering Boccaccio who, in an effort to win her, spins two of his stories:
The first is "Paganino the Pirate", a spicy tale of a young wife, Bartolomea (Joan Fontaine)who, married to an elderly gent, Ricciardo (Godfrey Tearle), who prefers astrology to martial bliss, permits herself to be captured by a young pirate, Paganino (Louis Jourdan), to teach her husband a lesson. Binnie Barnes is the Countess of Florence and Elliott Makeham the Governor of Majorca in this segment.
The second tale is "Wager on Virtue", concerning an elderly merchant, Bernado (Godfrey Tearle),who loses faith in his beautiful young wife, Ginevera (Joan Fontaine), on the strength of circumstantial evidence present him by a daring young rogue, Guilio (Louis Jourdan), who has previously goaded him into a bet on his wife's virtue, or lack thereof. The characters in this segment include Nerina (Binnie Barnes), The Sultan (Meinhart Maur), the Merchant Captain (Van Boolen), a Merchant in French Inn (Gordon Bell) and George and Bert Bernard as messengers.
The third story, told by Fiametta, is "The Doctor's Daughter," concerning a delicate matter of matrimony when a wife, Isabella (Joan Fontaine), finds herself spurned by the man, Bertrando (Louis Jourdan), who has wed her at the command of his King (Hugh Morton.) Characters include Maria (Joan Collins), The Old Witch (Binnie Barnes), Father Francaisco (Noel Purcell) and Signora Bucca (Marjorie Rhodes.)
The three stories bring the main story back to a happy and logical conclusion.
