A Quiet Place in the Country

Flavia pressures Leonardo to resume painting, hoping to sell his work through her gallery. He agrees to move away from Milan into the Italian countryside to regain inspiration. The decision marks a fresh start away from the city and its distractions.

Drawn to the villa's ruinous charm, Leonardo decides to rent the property to work on his restoration. Attilio, the longtime caretaker, introduces him to the estate and its rumored past. He also hires a young housekeeper, Egle, to help with the upkeep.

Upon moving in, the estate is filled with disturbing sounds that unsettle Leonardo. The isolation of the villa amplifies his senses, making every creak seem like a sign of something supernatural. He becomes more absorbed in the building than in his own art.

Leonardo is told by a shopkeeper that Wanda, a young countess, died on the property during a WWII airstrike. The revelation casts a shadow over the estate's history and hints at a dark past. The shopkeeper's information foreshadows the house's haunted reputation.

Later that day, Leonardo notices a strange man leaving flowers along Wanda's exterior death site. The ritual suggests that Wanda's memory still lingers and that others are aware of the villa's tragic history. It deepens Leonardo's sense of being watched.

Flavia comes to help restore the villa, but soon she experiences a series of frightening accidents. A weakened floor collapses under her, injuring her leg, and a bookshelf falls, narrowly missing her. The incidents shake both of them and push her to fear the property.

Locals recount Wanda's reputation as a nymphomaniac, suggesting a tangled web of lovers. The butcher confirms affairs with Wanda, including with Attilio, hinting at a motive and a history tied to the villa. Leonardo's curiosity deepens as he digs into Wanda's past.

Posing as a journalist researching the aristocracy, Leonardo travels to Venice to meet Wanda's ailing mother. He manipulates the conversation to obtain Wanda's mementos, including a red satin dress, and steals photos that he brings back to the villa. The trip reveals his willingness to exploit others for his art.

Attilio reveals that he leaves flowers at Wanda's death site and was with her when she died. He guides Leonardo to a hidden room with a one-way mirror where Wanda and Attilio once entertained each other while Wanda's mother watched. He recounts the murder of a German soldier and Wanda's role in burying the body, the same day Wanda was killed in the airstrike.

Flavia returns and the couple hosts a dinner party. Leonardo arranges a séance to contact Wanda's spirit, but the ritual is cut short when a presence violently strangles Flavia. The night exposes Leonardo's dangerous obsession and his growing detachment from reality.

After confronting Flavia upstairs, she realizes Leonardo tried to strangle her. He threatens with a knife; she attempts to flee, but he pursues and kills her with a shovel, dismembering her body. The act devastates the household and drives Leonardo further into his own murderous artistic fixation.

Leonardo binds Egle and her boyfriend and uses their bodies as components of his paintings. The brutal act demonstrates how he parses life and death into his art, blurring the line between creation and carnage. The house becomes a gallery of horror as dawn approaches.

At dawn, a procession of soldiers and attendants passes the property as Attilio admits Wanda survived and that he killed her to cover up the truth, making it look like the airstrike. The authorities arrive, and Leonardo, convinced he has staged a murder, is escorted outside by psychiatrists. In a final twist, he sees Flavia among the police and attacks her.

Some time later, Leonardo is incarcerated in a psychiatric institution, where he continues to paint obsessively, under the influence of pornographic magazines supplied by an orderly. Flavia secretly purchases the paintings from the orderly to exhibit in her gallery, completing the macabre cycle of art and exploitation.