Racial integration is Elena’s profession and passion, not only filling her working day as a cultural mediator assisting immigrants, but spilling over into her home life as well. All too often her daughter Giovanna and her husband Carlo, a computer technician, must attend evening charity events where they feel distinctly out of place. During one of these evenings, Carlo meets Nadine, a beautiful black woman with whom he establishes an intimate understanding at first glance. Nadine’s husband Bertrand, a refined black intellectual and the evening’s featured speaker, stirs everyone with his heartfelt words. Later Carlo convinces his wife, who is quite hesitant, to invite Nadine and her children to Giovanna’s birthday party. In the midst of the fun and noise of the party, Carlo and Nadine barely say a word, but their feelings are unmistakable. A computer needing repair breaks down the last barriers, allowing their passion to flow free, while others, their family and friends, are flooded with feelings of astonishment, rejection and a certain morbid curiosity: what is it like for a black woman to love a white man? What happens to a passionate love when everything is working against it?