Conversation Piece

A retired American professor lives alone in a luxurious Rome palazzo, surrounded by art and books. He mostly communicates with his long-time housekeeper Erminia, and their relationship remains cool and distant. The opening establishes his measured life before it is disrupted by new tenants.

Countess Brumonti visits and persuades the Professor to rent the empty upper-floor apartment to her party: Konrad, Lietta, and Stefano. The Professor agrees, unknowingly inviting a new energy—and friction—into his life.

The newcomers begin rebuilding the apartment, intrude into the Professor's space, and test his old-world boundaries. They host parties and begin entangling relationships, including amorous encounters among themselves.

Konrad's past as a gigolo and leftist radical is hinted as he is beaten over gambling debts. The Professor finds him, tends to his injuries, and so begins a growing friendship over a shared interest in art. The contrast between Konrad's turbulent past and the Professor's refined memories becomes central.

The Professor hosts a dinner for Countess, Konrad, Lietta, and Stefano, calling them his new family. He delights in the liveliness they bring to his otherwise restrained life and signals his acceptance of their presence.

A heated dispute erupts about Konrad's dubious history and his relationship with the Countess. Konrad reveals he spied on her husband to protect himself from Francoist Spain, not for business reasons.

The Countess and Stefano withdraw from Konrad, and the Professor rejects the others' reactionary views without taking a side, choosing not to intervene to defend Konrad.

Before heading upstairs, Konrad leaves a farewell letter signed 'Your son', implying they may not see each other alive again. The gesture deepens the Professor's sense of kinship and foreshadows tragedy.

Shortly after the farewell, a gas explosion upstairs kills Konrad. The Professor, overwhelmed with guilt, falls seriously ill, blaming himself for not protecting him.

On the Professor's deathbed, the Countess claims Konrad committed suicide to hurt those who loved him, hoping to drive them apart. The statement unsettles the Professor and leaves him searching for a truth beyond her account.

Lietta interrupts, telling the Professor that Konrad did not kill himself but was murdered. The revelation challenges the Countess's narrative and compounds the Professor's grief.

Left alone, the Professor gazes upward and clasps his hands as though in prayer, uncertain what to believe and whether anything remains to believe in. The scene closes on a quiet, unresolved note as he faces his own mortality.