Cesare (Salvo Randone), a widowed plumber, witnesses a man his age suffer a fatal heart attack on a tram. Deeply shaken by this death, Cesare quits his job—and then discovers he too has a heart condition. He resolves to explore the city around him, scrutinizing the social expectations that have guided his life up until this point. Co-scripted by the prodigious Tonino Guerra, who wrote Amarcord and Blow-Up, this melancholy meditation on modern life and consumer values offers some of the most exquisite night photography of Rome ever committed to celluloid.