Gregorio Ferramonti Anthony Quinn is a widower who has spent forty years building a bakery that he plans to sell. He does not trust any of his three children — Pippo Ferramonti [Gigi Proietti], Mario Ferramonti [Fabio Testi], and Teta Ferramonti [Adriana Asti] — who among themselves are as quarrelsome as they are distant from their father. The old patriarch announces a stark decision: none of them will inherit. The family tensions are sharp, and the looming question of money uncovers long-buried resentments.
Pippo Ferramonti marries the gentle and steadfast Irene Carelli Ferramonti [Dominique Sanda], a woman determined to bridge the growing rift within the family. Irene’s resolve drives her to attempt a practical reconciliation among the siblings and their stubborn father, even as she herself becomes thrust into the middle of the family’s tumult. She wins over Mario Ferramonti, a man whose charm and flaws—gambling and womanizing—pose a constant risk to stability, and she also manages to earn a reluctant cooperation from the abrasive Teta Ferramonti through shared ambitions to rise above their origins as petty tradespeople. Irene’s influence extends beyond mere mediation; she begins to care for Gregorio himself, organizing his routines, monitoring his health, and shaping a calm, careful domestic world around him.
As Irene draws closer to the aging patriarch, their relationship grows into something intimate and lasting. In a surprising turn, Gregorio and Irene become involved, and the elder man, feeling a sense of companionship at last, reveals that his will has changed to make Irene the sole heir. This newfound happiness is soon shadowed by tragedy: Gregorio dies, and Irene is left to confront the consequences. The family reels—Pippo sinks deeper into alcohol, Teta erupts in fury, and Mario, more deeply hurt than before, shoots himself. When the wariness surrounding the will surfaces in court, Teta challenges the document, and the legal outcome is that the surviving children must share the inheritance, ending any illusion of a single beneficiary and forcing a painful, hard-won equality among the siblings.
