Although Pier Paolo Pasolini does away with the framing device and the story structure of Giovanni Boccaccio's classic set of tales, he does follow the source's sense of playfulness about matters both sensual and romantic. Sex is a device for deceit for many of the characters: a woman invites a wealthy young man to her home, presumably to entertain him but then "reveals" that she is actually his sister and proceeds to rob and humiliate him; a young man pretends to be a deaf-mute to get a job in a convent where he might seduce the younger nuns, but then all of them, including the mother superior, demand a piece of the action; a priest is talked into providing a secret spell for an impoverished couple, only to use his powers as an excuse to have sex with the wife; a young woman claims to need an open-air balcony for sleeping on a hot night, when what she really wants is a trysting spot with her lover. Pasolini appears several times as Giotto, who is seen contemplating the creation of a mural in a church, though in the end he asks, "Why execute a work when it's so beautiful to dream it?" Nearly all eight stories here are well executed, but Pasolini, like so many artists, understands the gap between the conception of a piece and its actual realization.