“There is no love in what we are doing and so work is not work, friends are not friends...” says Paola (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) in a bitter outburst following a boring dinner with friends of her husband. Back at home the baby-sitter seems to have disappeared. Paola has had enough and although the crisis may just last one night, she feels it is time for her to draw a line in the sand about her relationship with her husband. During this painful process, a number of unsavoury facts come to light.
Alessandro Haber plays a talented jazz musician, bitter because he feels he is wasting his life playing in restaurants instead of being with his family. He is not young anymore and spends what free time he has composing music in the hope of becoming famous... A series of coincidences bring him a sort of reconciliation and peace.
This is a film about lives that occasionally overlap like the pieces of a puzzle and without any apparent logic. Nevertheless, someone is still trying to give a meaning to the events. That is the tough challenge faced also by an American professor of philosophy – played by Tony Musante- who has to come to terms with a bereavement. He ends up almost feeding off pain. He is separated and resigned to passing the rest of his days in solitude until an unexpected encounter with a tender-hearted and very gentle woman - Stefania Sandrelli.
The life of Max (Daniele Liotti) is virtual. Life, sex, free time and even death are nothing so much as games to him. As time passes, he finds it more and more difficult to deal with reality because he is empty inside and his wife - Stefania Rocca – fights a tireless battle to bring him back down to earth...
Marco – Claudio Santamaria – has always thought of himself as an extremely down-to-earth person. Until, that is, he is fired. Losing his job is a tragedy for Marco until he meets up with a friend he has not seen for ages and who helps him come to terms with the future.