In a small town in Tuscany in the 1950s, two young Communists Sergio and Vittorio are studying the lives of a group of gypsies. Lorenza arrives from Florence, trying to get away from a broken marriage – Guglielmo. Lorenza meets a young gypsy by the name of Andreas, who she is fascinated with. But the presence of the gypsies provokes outrage among the townspeople. When an old farmer dies in an outbreak of violence, the townspeople want to lynch the young gypsy. Sergio and Vittorio, along with the postman Marco, spring to the gypsy’s defense. Sergio is wounded, and the three young men, who are now being hunted by the police, manage to make it to the safety of Lorenza’s house. They find her fighting with her husband who arrived in town without warning and is trying to posses her by force; the interruption makes her run off into the countryside, where she meets Andreas. They make love hidden in an old farmhouse. When dawn arrives the police come and the young gypsy runs away, but is shot to death. But Lorenza is carrying his child, the child her husband was unable to give her.