Michele criticizes the film industry and its inhabitants, and is particularly embattled with a Neapolitan director making a musical about the 1968 student demonstrations. At the same time, Michele has a creative block and struggles to finish his film titled "Freud’s Mother." Nanni Moretti’s self-inquiry into filmmaking, political ennui, and men’s relations with their mothers.

While touring in Italy, a recently-widowed American opera singer has an incestuous relationship with her 15-year-old son to help him overcome his heroin addiction.

Yerma wants a child but with her dispassionate husband has failed to conceive. On the other hand, Victor courts her but the sense of caste and honor prevent from surrendering to him.

A mute mother stands by idly as her young children radicalise as a result of a society that thrives on conflict and manipulation. As she is drawn to a group of political activists, her absence allows her children to become increasingly extreme in their behaviour and lethal games they play.