来自共产党的八名意大利政治家聚集在罗马的一个露台上进行聚会。他们讨论他们的过去、现在和未来。

Giovanni and Raffaella are happily married from ten years, but their relationship goes into crisis when Raffaella falls in love with Valerio Mantovani, a handsome forty-year-old man she knew during the concerts of chamber music she weekly attends with her mother.