Mimi (played by Giancarlo Giannini) is a poor laborer whose life is pulled between hardship, politics, and the underworld. In a Sicily where loyalties are tested by money and power, he is pressured by his employers to vote for the mafia candidate in a local election. Believing the ballot will stay secret, he chooses the communist representative instead. The consequence is swift and brutal: he is fired and told he will never work again because the ballot was not secret. This harsh rejection propels him to flee to Turin, while his wife Rosalia (played by Agostina Belli) remains behind in Sicily, carrying the weight of the family’s choice.
In Turin, Mimi finds illegal construction work, and the city’s gritty pulse becomes the backdrop for a new kind of danger. When he witnesses a laborer fall to his death, he helps the man into a van, mistaking it for a hospital run. He soon learns that the mafia intends to dump the body, and in a tense moment he reveals a crucial connection: his wife Rosalia is the goddaughter of Liggio, a powerful mafioso. This revelation buys him a chance at a better life—a respectable union job in a factory and a deeper entanglement with the communist party. The new work and the new circle give him a sense of protection, but they also pull him further from the values he once held.
One day, Mimi spots Fiore (Fiorella Meneghini) on the street selling sweaters, and his world tilts again. Fiore (played by Mariangela Melato) and her friend are attacked, and Mimi steps in to help. He discovers she is a Trotskyist, and their fates become intertwined. In a park, a moment of coercion tests Fiore’s resolve: she resists him, makes it clear she is a virgin who won’t sleep with a man until she loves him, and demands that their bond be built on something more than momentary passion. Yet Mimi remains drawn to her, and after a period of hesitation, he confesses that he loves her—though he worries she may not return his feelings. Fiore, moved by his honesty, finally admits that she loves him too, and their relationship deepens into a dangerous, clandestine affair. Fiore becomes pregnant, and she gives birth to a son fathered by Mimi.
At the christening for their child, a stark departure from happiness intrudes: Mimi goes to fetch more champagne and stumbles upon a mob murder. He survives with a scratch, and when questioned by the police, he refuses to reveal anything. This brush with danger paradoxically catapults him back into visibility at work, and he is promoted to a management role back in Sicily. Yet the truth of his double life haunts him. Terrified that his wife will discover his second family, Mimi hides Fiore and their baby, pretending to be exhausted and disinterested in sex. Gossip fills the town, and people begin to think Mimi is homosexual, a rumor that gnaws at him as the years pass.
The web of secrets tightens when Rosalia reveals she is pregnant with Amilcare’s child, and Mimi learns that Rosalia’s bastard will bear his name while Fiore’s child will bear a different one. Enraged and humiliated, Mimi confronts Rosalia and then turns his anger toward Amalia, Amilcare’s wife. He seduces Amalia and, after a night with her, informs her that Amilcare had impregnated Rosalia. At first horrified, Amalia decides that the only way to strike back at their cheating spouses is to conceive a child together, leading to a monthly series of visits between the two lovers.
Amalia grows increasingly central to the town’s gossip, and as her pregnancy progresses, Mimi confronts Amilcare on the town steps, proclaiming to a crowd that Amalia is bearing Mimi’s child. Amilcare threatens to shoot him, but a mafia minder, watching over Mimi, shoots Amilcare and then places the smoking gun in Mimi’s hand. Jailed for Amilcare’s murder, Mimi receives a chilling taunt from the mob: taking the blame has earned him status and the promise of a job upon release. He refuses the supposed reward, but upon release, he is pulled into a maelstrom of affection and obligation from Fiore, their child, Rosalia’s abandoned son, and the others who claim a share of his time and money. To sustain financial survival, Mimi agrees to work for the mafia and begins promoting the election of Vico Tricarico (Don Calogero / Vico Tricarico / Salvatore Tricarico, portrayed by Turi Ferro). This move starkly dents his earlier communist ideals, and Fiore, disillusioned by the path he has chosen, leaves him, taking their child with her. In the end, Mimi chases after what he once believed in, only to collapse under the weight of his choices and the realization that his longing for meaning has been eclipsed by a life of divided loyalties. He mourns the loss of his ideals as the film closes, surrounded by the competing loyalties of love, family, and the mafia.
