Carlo, a thirty-something man-child, platonically falls in love with eleven-year-old Giulia.

A razor-wielding serial killer is on the loose, murdering those around Peter Neal, an American mystery author in Italy to promote his newest novel.

Taddeus is the manager of the Grand Hotel Excelsior. The Summer season begins in May and since then many odd persons frequent the hotel. There is Ilde Vivaldi, in love with Taddeus and the boxer Pericle Coccia who has an important match and falls in love with Maria. There is the Mago di Segrate trying to win world fame by levitating thirty meters high. And there is the waiter Egisto whose daughter is in a Swiss College believing her father is a man of importance.