The first color film by writer/director Salvatore Samperi is this grim family melodrama, a modern-day reinvention of the tale of the Prodigal Son. Upon hearing of his father's death, Enrico Merlo (Jean Sorel) leaves his boarding school in Switzerland and returns home to Padua. There he overhears a conversation between his older brother Cesare (Maurizio Degli Espositi), who has taken over the profitable family business, and Verde (Marilù Tolo), Cesare's cousin and lover. Their words persuade Enrico that the two have murdered his father; he obtains proof when he discovers that his father's death certificate post-dates his death. But Enrico becomes gravely ill with pneumonia, all the while refusing to return the incriminating death certificate to the killers, and so Verde makes sure he is denied his needed medication and lets him die.