After the death of his father, Rocco Parondi [Alain Delon], one of five sons from a poor rural Italian family, leads his mother Rosaria [Katina Paxinou] and brothers Simone [Renato Salvatori], Ciro [Max Cartier], and Luca [Rocco Vidolazzi] north from Lucania to the industrial city of Milan in search of a new life. They expect to stay with Vincenzo [Spiros Focás], the eldest brother, in the Lambrate district, but Vincenzo’s fiancée Ginetta [Claudia Cardinale] and her family object to the presence of the southerners, leaving the Parondis to take shelter in an unheated basement while their fate begins to unfold. The sudden summons of pregnancy forces a rapid shift: Ginetta and Vincenzo marry, and the rest of the family must fend for themselves with grit and resilience.
Simone, the second brother, struggles to adapt to the bustling, unforgiving urban environment. He is drawn to Nadia [Annie Girardot], a woman who works the margins of the city’s nightlife, and she encourages him to pursue boxing as a quick path to fame and money—a path his mother backs as well, hoping it will lift the family out of poverty. Although Simone falls in love with Nadia and wants more than a casual fling, Nadia ultimately rejects him after a moment of betrayal: she returns jewelry Simone had stolen from Rocco’s employer, severing their tenuous bond.
Rocco himself is called up for military service, leaving his family to navigate the world without his steady presence. Near the end of his enlistment, he unexpectedly encounters Nadia again, fresh from a prison stint for prostitution. Her renewed closeness rekindles a gentle, hopeful pull toward a life with him, and her transformation inspires a longing for a more sincere partnership. This fragile bond, however, provokes a brutal response from Simone: he and a gang attack Rocco and Nadia, raping Nadia in an attempt to “teach Rocco a lesson.” This violent act fractures the brothers’ ties, and Rocco, guided by a sense of duty and forgiveness, ends his relationship with Nadia and urges her to return to Simone, who she eventually does—though only to hasten his own downfall.
Ciro, now the second-youngest, returns to night school and secures steady work at the Alfa Romeo factory. He actively works to support the family’s new life in the city and eventually becomes engaged to a local woman from a respectable family, aiming to secure a better future for everyone.
Throughout these trials, Rocco repeatedly sacrifices his own happiness to shield his kin. He covers for Simone’s misdeeds, returns the stolen jewelry, and even agrees to a long boxing contract to help shoulder Simone’s debts—debts that include a troubling episode involving a man Simone harmed under compromising circumstances.
The family’s fragile equilibrium shatters during a championship bout: while Rocco fights, Simone visits Nadia, who has returned to prostitution, near the Ponte della Ghisolfa, and fatally wounds her after she expresses her hatred for him. Rocco triumphs in the ring, yet the victory is overshadowed by the family’s turmoil. During the post-fight celebration, he voices a longing to return to their southern home in Lucania, and his mother echoes the ache of wanting all her sons together again.
In a shocking turn, a bloody Simone interrupts the party to confess Nadia’s murder. Rocco, in his customary effort to protect his brother, grapples with anger and sorrow, but Ciro refuses to shield Simone and leaves to inform the police. The youngest sibling, Luca, watches these events unfold with quiet resignation. He visits Ciro at work to share the news of Simone’s capture and to express a wish to return south with Rocco. Ciro cautions that Rocco may never return, suggesting the world’s march forward has irreversibly altered their lives, though Luca persists in hoping for a better future somewhere beyond the city’s reach.
As Luca walks away, he glimpses Rocco’s image in a newspaper stand, a reminder of the many cities and fights that lie ahead for him. The narrative encapsulates a family whose shared dream of ascent collides with the inexorable changes of modern life, forcing each member to weigh loyalty, sacrifice, and the price of progress against the longing for home.
