In Passy, ​​Paris, 1895. The young widow Hélène calls the doctor Henri Deberle during the night, when her daughter Jeanne suddenly gets breathless. Together they spend the night at the bedside, and it develops from a trusting encounter a love relationship. When the doctor Hélène one day confesses his love, the daughter comes from jealousy in another, life-threatening crisis. A film adaptation of the eponymous novel by Émile Zola, which addresses the social milieu of the bourgeois family in the "Second Empire".

Michele, a young mathematics professor, moves into a new flat. Lonely, depressed, and neurotic, he spends his free time spying on his neighbors, particularly a young couple struggling with the routines of married life. When Bianca, a new teacher at the local high school, enters his life, Michele finds himself falling in love. At the same time, a string of murders rocks the neighborhood, casting suspicion on him.

Mauro, a judge, is worried about his older sister Marta, who took care of him since he was a boy, and now suffers from mental illness and suicidal thoughts. She seems to recover from her depression when Mauro acquaints her with Giovanni, a brilliant actor at the edge of legality. However, Mauro becomes unconsciously jealous of their relationship.