Released from a boarding school of nuns in Como, the seventeen-year-old Milanese Elena Giordani manages to convince her parents to let her spend the summer holidays together with her Genoese friend Diana D'Aquino in her villa in Rapallo.

Episodic journey of journalist Marcello who struggles to find his place in the world, torn between the allure of Rome's elite social scene and the stifling domesticity offered by his girlfriend, all the while searching for a way to become a serious writer.