Seasons of the year are used to frame human life, from birth to death.

A man walks with his child on the grass of a hill. He reaches an old country house, where years before he had spent his childhood during World War II. The deserted and desolate rooms make him travel back in memory to the time when the war was ending. Episodes of family life pass before his eyes: father, mother, grandmother and six children, of which he, Silvano, the youngest, was made mute by the shock of a bomb exploding...

At the end of the war, Odysseus, the wandering hero, with his companions begins his sail back home to the Mediterranean. The conclusion of his adventure is delayed by many natural obstacles and he takes an internal journey of fleeting memories of his childhood, his parents, love for a beautiful girl, nostalgia for the past, regret for what he did, and the deep silence that envelops everything. He confronts the most terrible loneliness following a shipwreck in which all the comrades perish.

The different faces of love provide the theme for this beautifully photographed film comprised of four short episodes. In the first story, two sisters head out for a New Year's Eve celebration and end up getting a ride with a car full of boys. The lads rape one of the girls, and strangely, the victim ends up falling in love with one of the rapists. In the second story, two young bucks who have been friends for ages spend a weekend at one of their wealthy father's homes. Eventually, they become much more than friends. The third tale deals with the emotions of an abandoned lover. While moping about, he watches TV and sees the picture of a Bengal tiger. Soon he becomes obsessed by the creature and spends many hours observing it at the zoo. His lover decides to return, but he spurns her. In the last story, a homeless fellow lives in an abandoned car. Among the locals he is known for his wisdom. One day, the doorkeeper of an adjacent building goes to see the derelict.

"The Family," an album with a velvet cover, is meant to touch the extended family of man. Formal portraits, bookends in this 80-year saga, enclose the central story, which opens with the baptism of Carlo, a baby in his grandfather's lap, and ends with Carlo as a grandfather with a baby in his arms. And never once do we get out of the house, whose rooms provide the film's structure. Comfort or passion? Carlo couldn't really decide until it was too late.