In 18th-century Sicily, deaf-mute highborn Marianna Ucrìa is forced to marry at age 13, bearing three children before even turning 16, when she finally gives birth to a boy. Despite everything, she'll find a way to emancipate herself from the oppressive social conventions of the time.

Carla, a lonely forty-year-old child psychiatrist, devotes all her time to her job. One day a man appears and gradually gets into her life. He tells her he is the lover of Nina, her estranged sister.