A prostitute goes on vacation to a beach resort with her young daughter (who's being schooled by nuns). Everything is cheerful and pleasant at the seashore; the customers at the hotel think she's a poor widow - she always wears black - and treat her like a lady. But when one of her former clients arrives, her carefree days on the beach are numbered.

Nannina is in love with Vincenzo who is poor and goes to Belgium to make his fortune. Nannina marries a rich elderly man. Vincenzo returns from Belgium and the passion flames up again. Nannina loses her head and wants to kill her husband; however, she is killed by an idiot servant whom she had always rejected.