The lives of a businessman and his family begin to spiral downward after he has an affair at an insurance convention.

In Caro papá, Dino Risi is telling the story of the decadent lifestyle, and dysfunctional family, of a wealthy businessman (played to perfection by Risi's favorite leading man, Vittorio Gassman). Risi paints his portrait against a backdrop of an Italy where the new permissiveness has run rampant, traditional socio-cultural values have been usurped by consumerism, and the streets have become an open battleground for politically extremist groups (the '70s were dubbed "The Years of Lead" due to the great number of terrorist acts, and politically motivated assassinations).

泰德（威尔士），查理（西科特）和汤姆（吉拉德）是三位老人，他们退出了社会，现在住在荒凉的小屋里。他们与外界的唯一联系是史蒂夫（ÉricRobidoux），他是附近城镇一家旅馆的管理者，他每周探访以带来食物和补给，以换取他们在现场非法种植的一部分大麻。 但是，有一天早上，特德在睡觉时死了。由于他实际上是该小组的负责人，这让查理和汤姆有些失落。此后不久，史蒂夫（Steve）带来了姑姑格特鲁德（Lachapelle）姑姑，他们不想再回到她已经生活了多年的辅助生活设施与他们同住，他们的生活进一步受到破坏。她进一步决定通过放弃名字Gertrude并由Marie-Desneige来摆脱过去。与此同时，一名当地摄影师Raf（Landry）试图寻找泰德（Ted），他试图记录数十年前毁灭该地区的森林大火幸存者的数量。同时，附近还有另一场森林大火的威胁，可能进一步破坏他们的生活。