Stefano is a shy and sensitive teenager who has just completed his studies in Switzerland and is considering becoming a monk. But his father, a rich Milanese publisher, who had the ambition to see his son succeed him, refuses and takes him on a cruise with a young woman to take this idea out of his mind...
Giulio has a faithful wife and a true friend, but he is convinced that only with money can one be happy. So he devotes himself to dangerous real estate speculation in Sardinia, even though he does not have the capital to deal with it. To find the necessary money, he is willing to give up even his dignity. And slowly, he alienates his most beloved ones from himself....
Rome 1943. The German Commandant of the city causes a turmoil in the Jewish community by offering them what seems to be an expensive way out of imprisonment and death.
