The Sex of Angels

Nora, an heiress at odds with her father, hatches a plan during a summer in Italy. She decides to take her father's yacht without permission to sail toward the Dalmatian coast of Croatia with her friends Nancy and Carla. They also look for a desirable male to join their voyage.

At a dance club, the three women meet medical student Marco and invite him to join their trip. Despite his casual girlfriend, he agrees to meet Nancy the next day for a swim. The trio weighs him as a potential companion for the voyage.

The women abduct Marco onto the yacht and a wary but amused Marco goes along with their plan. He attempts to flirt with each of the women, testing the group dynamic. The departure marks the start of a trip neither party fully understands.

Onboard, Marco discovers the women’s differing attitudes and intentions. He learns Nancy’s romantic interest is complicated, Carla’s is ambiguous, and Nora speaks of virtue. The true nature of their expedition begins to emerge.

As the yacht enters Croatian waters, authorities board for inspection. Marco, lacking passport and clothes, must hide away to avoid discovery. Once the patrol leaves, the women reveal their plan to experiment with LSD and to record the trip.

The four of them dose on sugar cubes and begin the LSD experience. They decide to tape record the trip because they fear they may not remember events later. The tension between memory and distortion becomes a central undercurrent.

The next morning Nora is in pain from the events, and Marco discovers he has been shot in the chest. The wound is not bleeding, but it endangers him and requires care. The mood on the yacht turns grim as the drug fog lifts.

The women remember nothing concrete from the night; Nancy hides the tape, fearing the consequences. They decide to seek morphine in a port, hoping to ease Marco's pain. The fear of blame and arrest hangs over their choices.

In a Croatian port, the druggist initially refuses to sell morphine without a prescription. Carla offers to trade sex, revealing the moral compromises the trio considers. The druggist finally agrees, providing the medicine after the bargain.

Back aboard, the group moves to rush toward a hospital, but Nora and Nancy drag their feet to avoid legal trouble. Carla campaigns for getting help, but the others hesitate, allowing Marco's condition to deteriorate. The trip home becomes a struggle to avoid accountability.

Marco succumbs to his wound before reaching port. The women console themselves with a fragile lie about what happened, then set his body adrift in an inflatable dinghy. The reality of the tragedy settles over the remaining passengers.

Back in Italy, the women put on brave faces but the trip has fractured their relationship. They fear being discovered or blamed for the tragedy. The façade masks a deep unease about what they have done.

Seeking any truth, they listen to the trip's tape, only to find it blank. Carla deduces that Nancy deliberately left the microphone off, sabotaging their record of events. The truth remains elusive and charged with blame.

In a final act of despair, Carla runs to the end of a pier and drowns herself. Nora and Nancy are left with the aftermath and the memory of what happened aboard the yacht. The tragedy closes on a note of guilt and loss.