The film presents the tale of Agnese Ascalone, daughter of prominent miner Vincenzo Ascalone, and takes place in a small town in Sicily. Agnese is seduced by her sister Matilde's fiancé, and has a tryst with him for which she confesses and tries to repent, only to be discovered by her mother and father.
A series of sketches about people who have illicit affairs in a motel: among them a starlet and a pilot, two bit Casanovas, an industry manager and his secretary.
The mental illness affecting young Dario, one of the two sons of the Dominici family living in a council building in Rome, disrupts the lives of all its members.
