Haunted by the memory of a brutal sexual trauma from his childhood, Marcello Clerici (Trintignant) has always sought to fit in with “normal” society, marrying dull bourgeois Giulia (Sandrelli) and then joining the Italian Fascist party. In 1938, Marcello is recruited by the Secret Service to assassinate his former mentor, Professor Quadri (Tarascio), now a prominent dissident in Paris. As he waits for his final orders in a neon-lit hotel room, we see the trajectory of his life and conflicts, both sexual and political, through a series of flashbacks.
