A seven-year-old boy named Amerigo who in 1946 leaves his impoverished family in Naples and gets on a train to go live with a wealthier family in the north as part of a postwar initiative to rescue children from poverty.

Anna is an accountant for an important insurance firm and lives with her longterm lover Alessio - a man who longs for a stable longterm relationship with children, home, etc. Anna, feeling as though the fire has fizzled in that relationship takes up with co-worker Domenico and the two begin a passionate affair.