In 17th century France, a theater troupe is allowed by its patron to go to Paris to produce an erotic play. The head of the troupe dreams of fame while his wife, the leading actress, and a new leading girl fall for each other.

A reconstruction of the bankruptcy of the Banco Ambrosiano bank and its liaisons with the Vatican and the Masonry through its president Roberto Calvi, notoriously found dead under the Blackfriars Bridge in London in June 1982.