Naples, 1959. Pure Mathematics professor Renato Caccioppoli, Bakunin's grandson, is a tortured soul. Recently discharged from the psychiatric hospital, left by his wife, and increasingly disillusioned with academia and the Communist Party, he lives his last days with painful detachment.
Depressed magistrate Damiano Fortezza relocates from Milan to a small town in Campania, where the three Fontana sisters, owners of a chain of incinerators, dominate. The youngest, Eugenia, is about to marry a well-known crook Fortezza has to prosecute. However, he ends up falling in love with Eugenia and questioning the priorities of his job.
