Set during the second world war, the sentimental education of a sensual adolescent girl, growing out of her childhood in a small, impoverished village in Southern Italy.
For personal and humanitarian reasons, Edoardo, a Ligurian sea captain, agrees to run a shipment of arms to Bosnian rebels for a shady Russian in Toulon who calls himself Riffaud. Edoardo's lover Clara wants him to quit the sea and Riffaud's wife warns Edoardo not to trust her husband, but Edoardo...