A screening of the 30 year old Hands Over The City at the School of Architecture in Naples is the occasion for a debate among youth, historians, politicos, industrialists, environmentalists.

Matilda is an unlucky girl: her boyfriends keep dying in strange accidents. The last of them, Torquato, a shy filing clerk, is a little afraid of this situation and doesn't know how to continue the relationship.

The portly meter reader Crecenzio is first seen blowing up a building. The reasons for this drastic, desperate act provide the basis for the story, which is told in flashback.