Matrimony is a drama about the complexity of relationships. On Christmas Eve, perfect housewife Giulia Francesca Neri is worried about a family heirloom which has cracked and rushes to the junk shop to get it repaired -- little anticipating her perfect marriage is about to fall to pieces as well. While everyone in Bologna is making last minute preparations, Giulia runs into her childhood sweetheart, Fausto Paolo Sassanelli. The meeting rekindles old feelings and Giulia realizes that to create the perfect marriage which everyone adores, she has sacrificed her own personality. While waiting to meet her parents at the station, she climbs into a departing train and disappears. The family slowly disintegrates, as if she were the binding element.

This movie is based on the life of Saint Edith Stein. She was a German nun of Jewish descent who had converted to Catholicism. Much of her early life was spent as an outspoken academic. There, according to the movie, she feuded with Joseph Heller, a fellow professor with right wing beliefs. In 1933, after Jews were no longer allowed to teach, she became a nun in the Spartan-like Carmelite order. But when World War II heated up, Heller, who had become an important Nazi official, took his revenge. He had her deported to Auschwitz