Four friends, former 1968 student protesters who have checked out of politics and struggle to come to terms with the present, try self-criticism to figure out what to do with themselves, only to end up doing what they do best: sinking into endless talk without ever reaching a conclusion.

Abandoned by his wife, who leaves him their child, Michele, a former '68 student protester with little going on in his life, struggles to be a good father. In the meantime, he spends his time acting in an experimental theater company directed by his friend Fabio.

A parody of Manzoni's canonical 19th-century novel "I promessi sposi" (The Bethroded) from the point of view of the villain Don Rodrigo, who, however, in this upended version of the story is the victim rather than the perpretator of the violence.

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.