Ferdinando Cefalù (Marcello Mastroianni), a 37-year-old impoverished Sicilian nobleman, is married to Rosalia (Daniela Rocca), a devoted wife he no longer loves. He is in love with his cousin Angela (Stefania Sandrelli), a 16-year-old girl he sees only during the summer because her family sends her away to Catholic school in the city. Besides his wife, he shares his life with his elderly parents, his sister, and her fiancé, a funeral director; the family share their once stately palace with his uncles, who are slowly but surely eating away the remainders of their once rich estate.