The life of Antonio suddenly changes when she meets Serena, a young nun who took the veil to escape the hard life of the country and has chosen the provision of assistance to the sick to get out of the convent, which falls in love, moving from the role of seducer to that of seduced.

At the end of World War II, shallow, self-centered Mara is the prettiest girl in her small Italian village; Bebo is a Communist partisan who is finding it difficult to adjust to the dull banalities of life in peacetime. When Mara’s father, a passionate Communist, declares that his daughter will marry the returning hero, her reactions range from joy to bitter resentment.