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.

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.