Alessio Mainardi is the son of Sicilian land-holders. While attending high school in Syracuse (Sicily) he lives with his roommate Tarquinio Masseo in Mrs. Formica?s family-owned bed and breakfast. While both of them are at constant odds with the adult world, the two youths are quite different in character. Alessio is romantic, platonically attached to Giovanna, his contemporary and the unreachable daughter of a colonel. Tarquinio is ostentatiously cynical and the heart-throb of Zobeida, one of Madama Ludovica?s prostitutes. Alessio?s truant behavior earns him an expulsion and a trip back home. He becomes informed that someone has taken advantage of his absence to steal Giovanna from him. Consequentially, Alessio returns to Syracuse. He gets close and thinks to have won the heart of Zobeida, but in the end the girl commits suicide. Meanwhile, he begins developing an aversion toward fascism.