Europe ’51

A labour strike keeps Irene from home and she arrives late to a dinner party with relatives in a post-war Rome apartment. The guests engage in heated political debate about peace and war. The evening ends in tragedy when Michel falls down the stairs, is hospitalised, and his family begins to fear for his life.

At the hospital, Irene learns Michel may have hurt himself to attract attention. She promises him that from now on she will always stay with him. The sterile hospital atmosphere deepens her sense of guilt and responsibility.

Michel dies soon after from a blood clot, shattering Irene's sense of purpose. She collapses into a crisis, questioning her capacity as a mother and the meaning of care in a post-war world. The tragedy underscores the fragility of their era.

A few days later, André calls Irene and they agree to meet. He urges her to stop blaming herself and to see how society shapes suffering. He tells her of a poor boy who cannot afford medicine, hinting at broader social injustice.

With André, Irene visits the boy's home and is moved by the poverty surrounding his illness. She donates the money needed for the medicine. The act sparks a sense of public compassion and solidarity in her.

A neighbour named Ines arrives, complaining about the noise and disruption. The other neighbours speak disdainfully of her, revealing that Ines works as a prostitute at night. The scene exposes the harsh judgments that accompany hardship.

Irene meets a young woman living with six children in a small shack by the river. André secures her a job at a local factory, offering a path out of poverty. Before her first day, the woman asks Irene to cover for her as she plans to meet a man she once knew.

Irene discusses the working conditions at the factory and the need to help the exploited. André argues that they may have to use force to secure freedom, while Irene insists that love is the only true solution. The disagreement strains their relationship but reinforces her core beliefs.

Back home, George accuses Irene of having an affair with André, reflecting the strain her activism has placed on their marriage. Irene remains focused on helping others and refuses to be drawn into scandal. The accusation adds to her growing isolation.

Irene visits a church and runs into Ines, who has confronted other prostitutes about streetwalking. Irene brings Ines back to her home where Ines coughs up blood. A doctor declares Ines in the final state of tuberculosis, and Irene stays by her side as she dies.

Irene then encounters an armed teenage son of a neighbour who is on the run after a bank robbery. She helps him escape, but urges him to turn himself in out of his own free will. Her action puts her in the hands of the police, and she is taken into custody.

The robber turns himself in, and George's lawyer argues that Irene is in shock after her son's death and that her husband is an important industrial figure. She is placed under observation in a mental institution. A priest praises her Christian spirit, but Irene contends that regulations alone cannot stop evil and that love must guide action.

Some time later, Irene is questioned by a committee of law, the lawyer, and the head of the mental institution, and is declared mentally unstable. Below her window, the family of the saved boy, neighbours, and the shack’s young woman gather, calling her a saint as she gazes down with tears and a small smile.