Vittorio, Adolfo and Luciano have been friends since they attended the Academy of Dramatic Art after the war, when their paths divided. Adolfo left for Brazil where he has become a very successful actor. Vittorio, having stayed in Italy, has since become a star of the screen and stage. Luciano, a director and theatrical actor politically involved in the communist party, has developed into a critic, a journalist and an academic. Due to nostalgia for Italy and his friends, Adolfo sends a telegram to Vittorio and Luciano announcing his return. During his journey home Adolfo looks back on he and his friends? former life with fondness; he dreams of getting the group back together and taking up his past life again. However, neither Vittorio nor Luciano resemble their former selves; even though they accept their current situation, they feel as if it were not truly reality. Only the calls for help from their old friend Luca locked up in a clinic are able to help them find the authenticity they seek. When all three find themselves together, they realize during a long argument that something has been broken between them. Luca?s arrival stops their fighting before it starts.