A young painter takes up French lessons with an elder lady to ensure he’ll get a grant for a French arts institute. That way he meets Anna, a beautiful married woman nursing the lady’s old father, and falls in love with her.

A number of residents of a nursing home, along with the nurses, go on holiday for a week. Nurse Erik recalls memories of Paolo at one of the disabled ladies, Maria. In flashbacks we get to see the tragic love story of Maria and Paolo, which took place in Italy in the 1920s. After Maria has been raped by one of the black shirts from the circle around the young Mussolini, in which Paolo also resides, Paolo is shot as a deserter when he wants to flee with Maria. In the present of the film the nurse Erik falls in love with a colleague.