Aboard a ship early in the 20th-century, a middle-aged Italian tells his story of love to a Russian.

Alfredo, jailed for theft and fraud, after having served the sentence discovers that his wife Adelina no longer wishes to live with him.

Set in Fascist Italy before the outbreak of World War II, the story centers on Tunin, a farmer turned anarchist who stays in a brothel while preparing to kill Benito…