Till Marriage Do Us Part

Two noble families celebrate Raimondo and Eugenia's wedding in Sicily. A telegram slips under the door declaring that they are brother and sister. Out of respect for inheritance and decorum, they agree to stay married but sleep in separate rooms.

On their honeymoon in Paris, Eugenia endures advances from a French baron. When she reveals she is still a virgin, the baron disappears abruptly. The episode foreshadows the limits of traditional chastity and leaves Eugenia craving something beyond propriety.

Back in Sicily, the chauffeur drives Eugenia to mass and stops at an isolated hut where he possesses her. The assault marks the start of a coercive pattern that haunts her private life. The event reveals the chauffeur's power over her body.

The chauffeur's trysts continue even as his ambitions widen to theft, robbing the household silver. The double life he leads exposes cracks in the household's integrity. Eugenia remains entangled in his control while the scandal grows.

At the chauffeur's trial, Eugenia reluctantly identifies him as her illicit visitor. The courtroom confrontation lays bare the personal betrayal behind the household's public facade. The case cements a sense of unresolved guilt for Eugenia.

Raimondo departs for war in Africa, leaving Eugenia in Sicily. There, she befriends Evelyn, a free-spirited journalist who introduces new perspectives and possibilities beyond her previous life. A new confidante enters Eugenia's orbit during wartime upheaval.

Raimondo returns from service as a celebrated hero. During a countryside bicycle ride with Eugenia and Evelyn, they pass the hut where Eugenia's virginity was first compromised. Evelyn privately suggests they make love on that same spot, foreshadowing further transgressions.

Raimondo is elected to Parliament in Rome and takes an apartment there. He bluntly proposes that instead of chastity they should taste the ultimate forbidden pleasure of incest, shocking Eugenia and destabilizing their relationship.

A telephone rings with an urgent message from Sicily declaring that they are not brother and sister after all. The revelation unsettles both of them and undermines the idea of ordinary conjugal life, leaving their future murky.

Italy enters the First World War and Raimondo dies on the front. His death ends his political ascent and precipitates a turning point for Eugenia and the family. The war's toll casts a long shadow over the remaining chapters.

Eugenia volunteers as a nurse, tending badly wounded soldiers. Among them she recognizes the ex-chauffeur, tying his fate once more to her traumatic history. The encounter underscores the war's reach into personal lives.

After the war, Eugenia travels to Paris and discovers that the baron, the only man she had tried to offer herself to, is dead. This loss leaves her with a different sense of emptiness and unresolved desires in a changed Europe.

One evening, the ex-chauffeur arrives in Eugenia's life again, newly recovered from his wounds. He is the only man she has slept with in years, and she fears revenge, though he seems more interested in what was interrupted than payback.

The ex-chauffeur's appearance leads to a renewed, unsettled liaison. Eugenia faces the uneasy prospect of continuing a relationship rooted in past betrayals while the future remains unclear and morally fraught.