The son of the wealthy Signor Della Corba loves one of his maids. Her brothers and father rebel at the idea of this union. But the girl is pregnant, and after the birth of the child, Della Corba's son decides to kidnap his mistress on Carnival Day. The brothers, having caught wind of the plan, kill him, then, in disguise, take him masked to his father's house, passing him off as a drunken friend. At dawn, Della Corba discovers her lifeless son under the mask. The maid having died in the meantime, he takes the child in and adopts him.

A fifty year old woman, scarred by a life of disillusionment and regret, returns to the place where she lived twenty years before, to rekindle happier memories. She meets a young woman, the daughter of the current owners' of the property, who is on the point of abandoning her home just as she did, all those years ago...