Timoteo, a skilled surgeon, receives the devastating news that his fifteen-year-old daughter Angela has been badly injured in a motorcycle accident. While the medical team works, he looks out a window and imagines a woman, back turned, sitting in the rain outside. Her striking red heels stand out, and he turns away in disbelief, clearly recognizing them from a past familiarity. The scene tugs at memories of an old affair, which become the film’s emotional throughline as his recollections unfold.
A new scene finds Timoteo in a bar on a hot day, in a place that feels unfamiliar. There, Italia, a woman of Albanian origin who works behind the bar and wears red heels, offers him a chance to make an important call from her home. Drunk and disoriented, he follows her to her flat, where he commits a rape. Afterward, he pretends to harvest genuine feelings for her, while learning from her that she was sexually abused in childhood by a dress salesman—subsequently revealed to be her father. This revelation deepens the complexity of power and guilt that shadows his actions. He decides to leave his wife Elsa and tells Italia about it, but the situation grows more tangled when he discovers that Elsa is pregnant. Italia becomes pregnant as well, further complicating Timoteo’s conscience. He cannot bring himself to confront Elsa about the pregnancy, and Italia, interpreting his hesitation as a lack of commitment, feels betrayed. A later scene shows Italia dancing outside her house in a frenzied state; when Timoteo scolds her, she reveals that she had their child aborted at a nearby gypsy’s—claiming it was for the best because she would not have made a good mother anyway. This revelation leaves Timoteo shaken and he returns home to his wife, now facing her own pregnancy.
Months pass, and Timoteo, shopping with Elsa who is about to deliver, spots Italia in a crowd and pursues her through the rain. He apologizes profusely, seeking forgiveness for the pain he caused. At first, Italia reacts with anger, but she eventually tells him that she understands why he couldn’t leave his wife, and hints that she, too, will move away soon. The next morning, Timoteo offers to drive Italia to her new town. Along the journey, his feelings deepen, and he confesses a longing to marry and settle down with her in the new place. During a meal, Timoteo unexpectedly marries Italia, addressing her as “my wife” in front of a waitress.
That night, a scream shatters the moment of quiet as Italia experiences excruciating abdominal pain. She is rushed to a local hospital where an ultrasound reveals that her abdomen is filled with blood, indicating a botched abortion. In a desperate move, Timoteo operates on Italia himself, but she dies shortly after, just as she regains a brief moment of consciousness.
Back in the hospital, a nurse informs Timoteo that Angela’s condition has stabilized, and he visits her with Elsa by his side. The moment is intercut with a reflection on the first figure seen at the film’s start: a woman seated with her back to him, who bears a resemblance to Italia when viewed in a hand mirror.
In the final act, a quiet ritual unfolds. Timoteo retrieves Italia’s red shoe—she had lost it on the way to the hospital the day she died, and the funeral director had refused to place it in her closed coffin. He carefully preserves the shoe and, in a poignant gesture, places it on the exact spot where he once imagined the woman resembling Italia sat. He kisses the shoe as a gesture of gratitude and returns it to its rightful place, attempting to lay some fragile peace over the tangled web of love, guilt, and memory that defined his life.
